We still don’t feel sorry for you, teach prisoners in jail, they’ll accept you
Oklahoma principal forced out after being targeted for drag career
Story by Maham Javaid • 3d
Shane Murnan thought he was living his professional dream when he was named principal of an elementary school. But it quickly soured after an anonymous newsletter highlighted his after-hours performances in drag.
The school began receiving threats weeks after his hiring. Anonymous callers told staffers that if Murnan, 52, came to his office, he would leave in a body bag, he said. Days later, Murnan’s Oklahoma City home and John Glenn Elementary School were threatened with bombs, police told him.
Murnan, who has been working in public education for 26 years, had to move homes out of security concerns, and the district told him not to come in during school hours.Eventually Murnan was asked to resign in January. The school district accepted his resignation earlier this week.
Oklahoma public schools superintendent Ryan Walters, who played a role in highlighting Murnan’s drag work, is calling for a regulation that would allow educators to be fired for “acts that excessively promote sexuality” outside of work.
When the newsletter V1SUT first posted about Murnan’s drag career and past criminal charges on Aug. 29, he said he felt supported by the school district, especially by Brayden Savage, the Western Heights School District superintendent.
“Being gay, I’ve been attacked my whole life,” Murnan told The Washington Post. “And this publication wasn’t even a very credible one, so I wasn’t as upset as the school district and Savage seemed to be for me.” A few days later, Libs of TikTok, a right-wing social media influencer with a national following, postedabout Murnan, and soon after Walters called for Murnan to be fired.
“I insisted on the removal of this person from Oklahoma schools from the beginning,” Walters told The Post in a statement Wednesday. “I will not allow the radical left to use our schools to indoctrinate our kids and promote the most extreme forms of sexual deviancy in the classroom and beyond.”Other staffers’ jobs were also at risk.
Paul Stafford, a kindergarten classroom aide who was hired by Murnan in July andalso works as a drag queen on nights and weekends at clubsin Oklahoma City, said he began worrying about his job after V1SUT mentioned him in a newsletter mid-fall, but the school district assured him that everything would be okay. On the first day of the spring semester, however, Stafford, 35, who was honored as the school’s best support staffer in December, was asked to choose between accepting a termination letter or submitting his resignation.
When Stafford asked why they wanted him to leave, Savage and school representatives in the hastily called meeting said, “It’s because of the alter ego, your drag persona,” he told The Post. Officials noted the costs of extra security resources, as the school was still facing continued safety threats. Savage and the school district did not respond to The Post’s request for comment. Savage told the Oklahoman the district had spent about $65,000 since August on additional security, administrative help and other costs.
“I began working in education recently, and it really ignited a passion in me,” Stafford said, adding that he was considering a career in public education when he was forced to resign. “But Savage and others straight-up said that I shouldn’t consider that while living in Oklahoma.” In December, NPR reported that Walters was looking to amend the teacher code of conduct to ban educators who engage in certain activities, such as performing in drag.
“I needed to perform for my livelihood, for my sanity, and simply to feel better about things,” he said…
For almost three decades, Murnan’s dream was to be a principal.Now, he said, he’s not sure if he can ever return to public education.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/oklahoma-principal-forced-out-after-being-targeted-for-drag-career/ar-BB1ihVjP