Sheriff's office launches probe after reports of naked women seen on official's TV at Oklahoma Board of Education meeting
The images were seen during the board's executive session, held in Superintendent Ryan Walters' office, The Oklahoman reported, citing members Ryan Deatherage and Becky Carson who attended the meeting.
NBC News has not confirmed the accounts of Deatherage and Carson, who were both nominated by Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican.
The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office launched a probe into the incident, according to Aaron Brilbeck, public information officer for the sheriff's office, after a request from the agency that oversees human resources matters for the state government.
Senate Pro Temp Lonnie Paxton and state Sen. Adam Pugh, both Republicans, had said in a joint news release Friday that the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, which oversees HR matters, was leading an inquiry into the incident and was working through proper channels to initiate an investigation.
'This is a bizarre and troubling situation that raises serious questions about the events and what took place during yesterday's executive session at the Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting,' Paxton said in a statement about the Board of Education's meeting held on Thursday.
Accounts shared by members of the Board of Education, he added, "paint a strange, unsettling scene that demands clarity and transparency."
The Office of Management and Enterprise Services didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
A legislative assistant to House Common Education Committee Chairman Dick Lowe, Caitlin Kilpatrick, pointed NBC News to reporting by the news outlet NonDoc that said Lowe attended the board meeting. Lowe told the publication that while he did not see the video of the naked women, he discussed the matter with the two board members who did view the images.
'Shocked would be maybe an understatement a little bit. In the position that that person is in, that's absolutely without a question not appropriate by any means for any state official, much less that state official,' Lowe told NonDoc.
Walters, a conservative Republican, has pushed for proposals to further integrate religion in schools, such as placing Bibles in them. He has also advocated for requiring students enrolled in state public schools to provide proof of U.S. citizenship.
In a statement posted Sunday on X after the allegations surrounding the meeting, Walters denied any wrongdoing.
"Any suggestion that a device of mine was used to stream inappropriate content on the television set is categorically false. I have no knowledge of what was on the TV screen during the alleged incident, and there is absolutely no truth to any implication of wrongdoing," Walters said. "These falsehoods are the desperate tactics of a broken establishment afraid of real change. They aren't just attacking me, they're attacking the values of the Oklahomans who elected me to challenge the status quo."
NBC News reached out to Walters and his spokesman, as well as Deatherage, Carson and the four other members of the Oklahoma Board of Education, for comment.
Oklahoma House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday that the Democratic Caucus has made six calls over the last two years requesting a special bipartisan committee to investigate Walters regarding other matters.
"Before these recent allegations came out, he has shown multiple times throughout his leadership that he has no interest in bettering the public education system for students and teachers. He is mainly concerned with advancing his own political and religious agendas," she said.
"These new allegations are serious and troubling, and while we wait for the investigation to be finished, I think it's prudent to acknowledge that there has been a dire need for change in leadership at the Oklahoma State Department of Education for a long time."
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