A high school English teacher in Oklahoma has resigned from her position after school officials placed her on administrative leave for sharing with her students a way to access books that the state banned educators from including in their lesson plans. Summer Boismier, who has taught in the state for the past nine years, began this year at Norman High School in Norman, Oklahoma, by greeting her students with a unique display — bookshelves covered in red construction paper that read, “books the state doesn’t want you to read.” The display was meant to respond to legislation, signed into law…
Kevin Stitt
Oklahoma Republicans Pass Texas-Style 6-Week Abortion Ban
The Republican-controlled Oklahoma state legislature passed a bill on Thursday that is modeled after the six-week abortion ban that Texas implemented last fall, which allows private residents to sue abortion providers in order to enforce the ban. Senate Bill 1503 would ban all abortions in Oklahoma after six weeks of pregnancy, so early on in the pregnancy that often people don’t even know yet that they’re pregnant. Like Texas’s six-week abortion ban, the bill places the onus of enforcement on individuals rather than the state. In other words, the state wouldn’t force abortion providers to abide by the new rules…
Julius Jones Will “Fight Another Day” — Death Sentence Commuted
On Thursday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) commuted the sentence of Julius Jones, a Black man on death row for a murder that all available evidence suggests he didn’t actually commit. “After prayerful consideration and reviewing materials presented by all sides of this case, I have determined to commute Julius Jones’ sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,” Stitt wrote in a tweet announcing his decision. The announcement was made just hours before Jones was scheduled to be executed. Upon hearing the news, activists who were gathered in the state capitol building to demand action from the governor…