Summer Boismier, 34 years old, is a doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma. Until August 24, she also taught 10th grade English at Norman High School, south of Oklahoma City. Then she ran afoul of the Oklahoma Republi-fascist Party and their new law—HR 1775—a weapon intended to prevent students from learning the true history of this country; or discussing sexual orientation and gender identity.

The first day of class, Boismier followed the administrators' instructions and put butcher paper over the hundreds of books in her classroom library that could be deemed “inappropriate” under HR 1775. She then hung a sign over the books announcing these were “Books the State doesn’t want you to read.” Nearby, she hung a QR code that her students could scan with their phones for the Brooklyn Public Library’s “Books Unbanned”¹ site, which provides digital and audio access to censored books for teenagers anywhere in the country.

Boismier was ordered to attend a disciplinary hearing the very next day, after a parent's absurd, baseless attack accusing her of disseminating “pornographic material” (because the highly regarded Gender Queer was one of the books featured at “Books Unbanned”), and calling for her to be stripped of her certifications and to have criminal charges brought against her! Boismier was placed on administrative leave. The next day, she resigned in protest rather than teach under conditions she considered intolerable.

Banning Truth, Dissent, and Critical Thinking

Oklahoma is one of a growing number of states dominated by Republi-fascists that have rammed through what they call “anti-Critical Race Theory” bans² in the past year. For the rabid white supremacists and male supremacists of Oklahoma, HR 1775 is intended to prevent any teaching of the truth of this country’s actual history (like the genocide of the Native Americans; 245 years of slavery; 100 years of Jim Crow segregation enforced with over 4,000 lynchings and the New Jim Crow of mass incarceration and police murder); or any teaching of or books about the LGBTQ community, or any discussion of gender identity.

How does HR 1775 do this? A teacher can be disciplined if their lesson causes any student to “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex.” Just a month before Boismier resigned, the state board voted to downgrade the accreditation of two of the state’s largest school districts—Tulsa and Mustang—for “violating” HB 1775.

As word of the controversy spread, Boismier didn’t hesitate to speak out to local and national media about what she had done—and why. Asked by a reporter, “Would she do it again?” she said: “I am a walking HB 1775 violation. And one of the sticking points between myself and my previous district was I would do it again in a heartbeat. No regrets."

State Official Puts a Target on Her Back

State Republi-fascists were not through delivering their message—not just to Boismier, but to teachers everywhere who dare to stand up. On August 31, Oklahoma Secretary of Education Ryan Walters—expected to become the state’s next superintendent of schools after the November elections—posted a letter on social media to Oklahoma’s State Board of Education calling for Boismier’s teaching license to be revoked. “There is no place for a teacher with a liberal political agenda in the classroom,” he wrote. And he posted this baseless, incendiary tweet: “Sexualizing our classrooms will not be tolerated. These are not Oklahoma values and this teacher must lose her teaching certificate.”

Within days, Boismier was flooded with disgusting and threatening messages. She was then “doxxed”—her address and other private information posted on social media—forcing her to move out of her apartment.

Rather than defend her, the school district issued a statement blaming Boismier, saying, “The teacher had, during class time, made personal political statements and used their classroom to make a political display expressing those opinions.” The mayor of Norman refused to support her. Meanwhile, in an opinion piece in the Oklahoma City Free Press, Oklahoma journalist George Lang warned that the attack on Boismier “sounds the alarm: an authoritarian theocracy is upon us in Oklahoma.” Now Republi-fascists in Oklahoma’s state legislature are calling for Boismier to be investigated for violating HR 1775.

Parents and Others Come to Boismier’s Support

Parents of many Norman High School students have spoken out publicly in support of Boismier and expressed concerns for the other teachers in the wake of this. Signs displaying the QR code for “Books Unbanned” have popped up around Norman. At a district board meeting September 12, most of those attending spoke against the book banning and HR 1775, and several people wore T-shirts with the QR code, made and distributed by a Norman bookstore.

People from around the country have written on Twitter offering Boismier a place to stay, calling for a fund to be set up to cover her expenses, inviting her to speak at events on banned books, offering legal assistance, and thanking her for her courage. “Truly, I am humbled” she wrote. “The amount of support sent my way these last 2 weeks has been nothing short of absolutely massive.” She assured everyone, “I have absolutely no plans to stop talking.” She emphasized this is not mainly about her but about the teachers broadly who are endangered if they teach the truth.

Boismier said she is not planning to leave education. But her life is still in danger, and she faces the threat that she will be stripped of her teaching credential and be investigated for possible prosecution.

High-Stakes Battle

A three-part series by Rafael Kadaris—"The Fight Against the Fascist Suppression of Historical Truth”—published at revcom.us last August makes this important point:

This fight over historical truth, and what lessons and values students will learn from that, is a high-stakes battle in its own right. And it is a key front in a larger political war these Republicans are waging to restructure society with a new fascist order, where truth is banned, dissent is outlawed, critical thinking is stifled, and white supremacy, male supremacy, and other oppressive relations are even more aggressively enforced.

This must be opposed, and the true history—and the teachers who are under fire for teaching it, and the students trying to learn it—must be defended.” (Emphasis added.)

These are the stakes, and this is the challenge to all those who are horrified by the attacks on this Oklahoma teacher, and by the book bans and suppression of historical truth in Oklahoma and throughout the country.