An Oklahoma principal, who worked as a school educator for more than 20 years, was reportedly forced to resign after his drag queen hobby reached the ears of the state superintendent American.
“I am a very professional person – I worked very hard … I dedicated myself to education, trying to make it a better thing. But they destroyed me and I don’t know where I’m going or what I’m doing now. It was a nightmare,” lamented Shane Murnan in an interview with NBC News.
On Monday, the principal of John Glenn Elementary School, in the Western Heights School District in Oklahoma City, had to resolve to formalize his resignation, after learning that if he did not leave voluntarily, he would be returned.
The man, who had worked in schools as an educator for around twenty years, had never had a problem with his hobby as a drag queen, which he practiced in the evenings and weekends, before the publication of an anonymous letter last fall, according to the American media.
“(The two jobs) have never been in conflict with each other. Then someone took (the information), ran with it and tried to make a spectacle out of it when it’s not a spectacle,” he insisted.
The anonymous letter reported in passing that the director would have been the subject of accusations of possession of child pornography in 2001, even if these had been rejected by two judges for lack of proof. The educator then accused a colleague of fabricating the allegations, according to NBC news.
Except that his ordeal would have reached a new height when the letter would have reached the ears of State Superintendent Ryan Walters, known for his incendiary remarks, who would have denounced the situation by demanding his immediate dismissal.
Ryan Walters also reportedly said he wanted to put in place regulations that would allow educators to be fired for “acts that excessively promote sexuality” outside of work “in the presence of a minor or in a manner accessible to a minor online.” , according to the American media.
These comments allegedly led to a torrent of threats against the school district and the principal, forcing him to work remotely because he posed a security risk on school premises, before being placed in administrative leave in January.
