These patriot Oklahoma teachers are now standing up and making others take notice! This is because the employees of the Oklahoma City Public Schools who had been placed on leave for refusing to follow the mask mandate of the district have made their intentions of filing a lawsuit known.
Professional Oklahoma Educators executive director Ginger Tinney commented to KOCO-TV that her organization is going to represent six employees – most of them teachers – who had been punished over this mandate.
“It is a little awkward and tense, but, you know, obviously, the teachers are very upset. They’re on paid administrative leave,” Tinney said.
“So, you know, this is their whole entire career they’ve worked hard for. I mean, it’s very serious. We’re happy to represent them, and we’ll just see what the courts decide,” she added.
Tinney said that the teachers she was representing were confused over the conflicting orders from different authorities.
“The teachers are in a bad spot. Like, you have a state law that says one thing. You have a school person or school superintendent who disagrees with the law, and they pass their own rules,” Tinney explained. “So, a teacher doesn’t really know what are my rights, what is the legality here.”
Even though Oklahoma health officials continue to call on Oklahoma’s Republican governor to enforce mask mandates for the children returning to school, Governor Kevin Stitt is still resisting those calls.
However, Oklahoma City Public Schools issued their own mask mandate as students there are now beginning their second week of school.
Last Saturday, hundreds of Oklahoma residents gathered at the state capitol to protest any vaccine or mask mandates.
Oklahoma is now experiencing a resurgence of the coronavirus because of a seven-day average where they saw a new average of 2,200 new cases even though the rate had previously dropped to just 110 new cases in June. The highest seven-day average was 3,900 in January.
“I think it’s important that teachers know we, Professional Oklahoma Educators, have their backs,” Tinney said regarding these teachers. “If they get in tough situations, they need to know, ‘Hey, there is help out there. We are there to help you.'”
