Earlier this week, the ACLU announced it would lead a coalition of civil rights and educational groups suing Oklahoma over its controversial critical race theory ban in federal court. StateImpact’s Robby Korth talked with ACLU of Oklahoma legal director and attorney Megan Lambert about the legal action.

StateImpact Oklahoma

ACLU lawyer discusses challenge to Oklahoma’s critical race theory ban

Host: Earlier this month Oklahoma School for the Deaf unveiled a fresh logo featuring their new Bison mascot. StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports the Bison name flips a new page in the storied history of Oklahoma’s school for deaf students. NEWSPAPER CLIPPING PAGE FLIP RK: John Reinenger is thumbing through a book of old newspaper clippings. The pages are from his days as a student at Oklahoma School for the Deaf here in Sulphur, a school that competed under the name Indians in his time. He’s speaking here through an interpreter. REINENGER (through interpreter): It brings back a lot of memories. Definitely nostalgic. So yeah. I feel very, very closely connected to OSD. It’s like my second home, really. (11) RK: The Midwest City man has a son here. His parents met here. He is a 2000 graduate. But there was one thing his mother Sylvia told him not to do at school. REINENGER: My mother told me never to dress like in costume as an Indian, like any kind of Indian costumes. (06) RK: John and his mother are both citizens of the Muscogee Nation. And people did dress up in costume regularly at football games and pep rallies.  REINENGER: I mean, I didn't honestly really think much about it. And then as life went on and I've gotten older, then I've looked at it and realized, Ooh. [air sucking grimace] Yikes. OK. (08) RK: There’s been a community-wide realization here as well. The Indians mascot was officially retired this year and replaced with the Bison. Superintendent Chris Dvorak. DVORAK: It really kind of came to a head where there were some serious conversations within the administration that had links to alumni. And we just got the sense that the time is now, you know, we can we really need to have a serious conversation. The writing is on the wall. (18) RK: So he tasked OSD alum and director of student life Trudy Mitchell with creating a task force and leading the charge toward a new mascot. She spoke to StateImpact through an interpreter. MITCHELL: The change is needed. I'm excited that it's going to be something new, it's going to be a new vision for our school. (08) RK: Mitchell met and spoke with dozens of alumni about the potential for change. It wasn’t well received at first, but she says, after several discussions many in the community have come around to the idea.  MITCHELL: Oh we had lots of options. We had painted horse, a T. Rex, a Tasmanian Devil. There was an eagle.  RK: But more than two-thirds ended up voting for Bison. Oklahoma School for the Deaf was hardly alone in its use of an Indigenous-themed mascot in Oklahoma. A StateImpact review of school nicknames found at least 75 public school districts - almost 15 percent - use Indigenous themed mascots. Corey Bunch, Education Services executive director for Cherokee Nation, says that can be hurtful. BUNCH: The chants from opposing teams and the slogans that kind of are associated with the mascots and the imagery they can quickly get carried away. And they just don't represent Native people.  (14) RK: The movement to change offensive names is gaining momentum in western states. Laws in Washington and Colorado passed this year are compelling schools to stop using Indigenous-themed mascots. Such a bill has not even been introduced in Oklahoma - the state with the highest proportion of Native Americans in the lower 48.  BUNCH: Certainly, Cherokee Nation nor other tribal nations are out twisting anybody's arm, telling them that they ought to change their mascots. But when we are asked we are certainly happy to participate. (13) RK: Individual districts are considering changes. Tulsa Union recently announced it would change its nickname. Tulsa Public Schools is looking at changing mascots at some sites as well. Bunch served as an advisory member for the review boards at both districts. And he says he always wants to advocate for Native students. BUNCH: We don't want them to be ashamed for any reason to just be the people that...

Oklahoma School for the Deaf welcomes new, more inclusive Bison mascot

In a weekly update to state agencies, the Oklahoma State Department of Health warned that strain has led to cutbacks. It reads, in part, "Urgent care centers are reporting decreased hours or are shutting down due to inability to serve patient volume or redirect staff to other facilities to support increase in patients." Like all other health providers, the centers are experiencing staff shortages, high demand and burnout.

Oklahoma urgent cares face cutbacks and shutdowns amid ongoing COVID-19 pandemic strain

Dr. Cameron Webb is the senior policy adviser on COVID-19 equity on the White House’s response team. After federal regulators approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for booster doses, Webb talked with StateImpact about who should get the third dose and why.

White House COVID-19 response adviser talks boosters with StateImpact Oklahoma

A growing number of schools around Oklahoma are starting to mandate masks in their hallways, with opt out provisions. StateImpact’s Robby Korth takes us inside the first public school in Oklahoma to require masks this semester.

Santa Fe South was the first district to implement a mask mandate in Oklahoma this fall. Here’s how it’s going

Dr. Mary Clarke says there's an age-old problem: doctors don't talk about their own problems. She is the president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association. That group saw trouble coming. Doctors, who already tend to struggle with mental health, started dealing with something plaguing all of us for the past 18 months: the pandemic. Financial struggles, family separation and more created even more risk factors for the state's physicians.

Oklahoma medical groups expand free therapy program for doctors amid COVID-19 fallout

Early childhood education is something Oklahoma has traditionally done well. But as parents fear the effects of COVID-19 on their youngest children, the state is seeing a steep drop in the number of students enrolled in Pre-K and kindergarten programs. StateImpact’s Robby Korth reports on the decline.

Coronavirus pandemic causes lagging kindergarten and pre-k enrollments

As the school year started in August, cases of COVID-19 among teachers and students grew across Oklahoma. StateImpact's Robby Korth and KOSU's Kateleigh Mills spoke with an Oklahoma City metro teacher named Anna about her experience catching the coronavirus and missing more than a week of classes.

An Oklahoma teacher shares her battle with the coronavirus

About every other person in Oklahoma can't get dental insurance. Nonprofits scramble to fill in the gaps, caring for people who come in with broken teeth, painful abscesses and worse. State officials took a major step in ramping up access this year, opening preventative coverage to adults enrolled in SoonerCare.

Oklahoma adds basic dental coverage to Medicaid amid a dire lack of care

The Biden administration lashed out at Oklahoma’s policies limiting mask wearing in a letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt and state schools superintendent Joy Hofmeister Wednesday. StateImpact’s Robby Korth sat down with Hofmeister to discuss its contents and Oklahoma City Public Schools’ masking requirement rules, Thursday. In a statement sent by a spokesman, Gov. Stitt says Oklahomans want to make their own decisions about whether their children should wear masks in school. "The fact that President Biden is focused on telling Oklahomans how to parent their kids while he turns his back on the American citizens trapped by terrorists in Afghanistan is another example in his pattern of poor judgment.”

Hofmeister: school boards ‘best suited to address’ masking in schools

School is in session across Oklahoma, even as the pandemic continues to rage and the Delta variant impacts more and more children. Managing editor Logan Layden sat down with StateImpact reporters Robby Korth and Catherine Sweeney for a discussion on the disruptions already occurring. 

As a new school year starts, StateImpact is tracking COVID-19’s impact

People who are personally affected when justice is denied will never think about the state's courts and law enforcement in the same way. StateImpact’s Quinton Chandler reports wrongful convictions can do long lasting harm and change how individual Oklahomans view the criminal justice system.

Wrongful convictions leave unhealed wounds

As the school year draws nearer, COVID-19 is not the only disease putting pressure on Oklahoma’s children’s hospitals. Across the state, kids are being admitted amid an unseasonable surge in respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. With demand already high, a back-to-school spike in COVID-19 could create a strain on pediatric beds.

"Unheard of:" Rare summer RSV surge fills Oklahoma children's hospitals

Oklahoma is making a big bet on helping students in the wake of a year interrupted by the coronavirus with mental health supports. StateImpact’s Robby Korth travels to Poteau to report how the district is leveraging a $35 million program to hire hundreds of counselors in schools across the state.

How one Oklahoma school district is using the state’s Counselor Corps to improve mental health accessibility

An advisory group hired consultants to find structural solutions to some of the Oklahoma County's Detention Center's longest running problems.

Architectural-engineering firm aims to fix Oklahoma County’s constitutionally challenged jail

StateImpact Oklahoma reports on education, health, criminal justice, and the intersection of government and everyday Oklahomans. StateImpact Oklahoma is a collaboration of KGOU, KOSU, KWGS and KCCU.

hubhopper

StateImpact Oklahoma

hubhopper