Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna said Wednesday she would not pursue criminal charges after two Board of Education members reported that images of naked women appeared on a television in the office of state School Superintendent Ryan Walters. Behenna said there was insufficient evidence to support charges.
Board members Becky Carson and Ryan Deatherage told the online news outlet NonDoc that they saw the images during an executive session in July. Walters has denied any wrongdoing. Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III, whose office led the inquiry, said investigators determined the television in Walters’ office was tuned to a movie channel that was running the 1985 film The Protector, which features a scene in which naked women enter a warehouse to package drugs.
Walters issued a statement blaming the media and “his accusers” for trying to stop his agenda, calling the investigation the biggest witch hunt in Oklahoma history. The Republican superintendent has spent much of his first term lauding President Donald Trump, feuding with teachers unions and local school superintendents, and pushing a conservative approach to public-school culture that he describes as protecting students from what he calls “wokeness.”
The case unfolds amid broader tensions over education policy in Oklahoma and across the United States, where elected officials continue to weigh curriculum choices, classroom culture, and the role of teachers unions in shaping public-school governance. The July executive-session report and the September decision to forego charges highlight how political dynamics can intersect with local education administration, even as investigators seek to determine facts in individual incidents.
The investigation’s outcome does not preclude further scrutiny of school administration or political reactions to Walters’ initiatives. The episode comes as Oklahoma officials have repeatedly faced questions about transparency, accountability, and the boundaries of appropriate conduct for state education leaders, all within a national debate over how schools address sensitive topics and gender-related issues in curricula and communications.