Oklahoma’s attorney general is accusing a state board of trying to rig the legal fight over a proposed Jewish charter school – a dispute that could open the door for publicly funded religious charter schools across the United States.
Oklahoma
Family rallies around Oklahoma father after head-on crash
OKLAHOMA CITY –
A newlywed Oklahoma man expecting his first child with his wife is now facing a long road to healing after a devastating crash.
Zain Daniels had just married the love of his life in December. Now, the couple is preparing to welcome a baby boy.
But instead of getting ready for their son’s arrival, Daniels’ family says they are focused on helping him recover from serious injuries after a head-on crash.
Family members say Daniels was simply driving to pick up his daughter from school when the collision happened.
The crash left him hospitalized with three broken bones, facial fractures and an abdominal wound.
“Ideally, we hope that he would make a full recovery,” said his aunt, Tamara Daniels. “But the reality of it is we just don’t know because of the extent of the injuries. He will have issues in the future.”
Daniels’ aunt and stepmother say the situation has been especially difficult for his wife, Paige.
“She’s really stressed out,” said Anna Daniels, his stepmother. “She is pregnant with their child that they’re expecting, and so we try to keep the stress down to a minimum on her.”
The crash has also created major financial strain for the family.
Tamara Daniels says his job does not provide short-term or long-term disability benefits.
“His company doesn’t offer any type of short-term or long-term disability,” she said. “So his income is completely out of the picture. It’s just her income.”
With additional surgeries expected and medical bills continuing to grow, the family is now asking the community for help.
“It’s a family that’s going to have to struggle to make their ends meet because of somebody’s decisions that they made that day,” Anna Daniels said.
Family members describe Daniels as a caring and giving person who spends time giving back to young athletes in the community. He volunteers as a wrestling and baseball coach and is known as a dedicated family man.
His family says the recovery process could take more than a year.
For now, they say their focus is helping him heal, and preparing for the arrival of his baby boy.
A GoFundMe has been created to help the family with medical expenses: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-nephew-after-car-crash
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Attorney-General accuses rigging of Jewish charter shcool vote | The Jerusalem Post
Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a motion this week asking an Oklahoma County district judge to intervene after the Statewide Charter School Board rejected an application to open the Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School, a virtual statewide school that would combine secular studies with Jewish religious instruction.
Drummond alleges that the board engineered its vote so the rejection would focus only on the school’s religious character, strengthening the legal case for the school’s supporters, who are preparing a federal lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s ban on religious charter schools.
“A state agency that deliberately hobbles its own legal position is not doing its job – it is betraying Oklahoma taxpayers. I will not allow that,” Drummond said in a statement.
He added: “The Board deliberately suppressed those findings to manufacture a cleaner path to federal court. I will not allow this Board to rig the record at taxpayers’ expense.”
Drummond asked the court to order the board to issue a new rejection letter detailing all of the reasons the proposal was deficient.
The dispute centers on the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation, led by former Florida Democratic Rep. Peter Deutsch. The group applied to open a statewide online charter school serving kindergarten through 12th-grade students beginning next school year.
The proposal called for a curriculum combining secular coursework with daily Jewish religious studies. If approved, it would have become the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school.
Jewish groups in Oklahoma have opposed the proposal, saying they prefer not to be thrust into the middle of a debate over church-state separation and that there is little demand for such a school among local Jewish residents.
The charter board voted earlier this week to reject the application, citing a 2024 Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling that charter schools must remain secular.
That ruling overturned a previous effort to open a Catholic charter school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court ended in a 4–4 tie after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself, leaving the state court decision in place.
Several board members said the precedent left them no choice but to reject Ben Gamla’s application.
At the same time, the board has signaled it may support the school’s broader constitutional argument in court. The board hired the conservative Christian legal group First Liberty Institute to represent it in the expected litigation and has indicated it could back the school’s position once a lawsuit is filed.
Drummond also fought Catholic charter school proposal
Drummond, who also fought the Catholic charter school proposal, said the legal question about religious charter schools had already been settled by the state courts and insisted his objection to the board’s vote was procedural rather than religious.
Among the issues he says the board improperly left out was a discrepancy in Ben Gamla’s projected enrollment.
Deutsch initially said the online school would serve about 40 high school students, but the formal application projected enrollment of 400 students across grades K-12.
State officials also raised questions about the composition of the school’s governing board. Oklahoma law requires a charter school board to include a parent or grandparent of a student. Ben Gamla listed Brett Farley, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, as its parent representative.
Supporters of the school have said they plan to challenge Oklahoma’s prohibition on religious charter schools in federal court, arguing that excluding religious schools from charter programs violates the Constitution’s protections for religious freedom.
MIDWEST CITY, Okla. –
Midwest City Police said on Friday afternoon that woman reported missing after not showing up for a doctor’s appointment was found in detectives in Oklahoma City. Police said the woman is talking to detectives, and is “doing great.”
Previous story:
A search is ongoing for a missing Oklahoma City metro woman who disappeared this week, according to police.
The Midwest City Police Department says 26-year-old Jordan Clayborn, who is pregnant, did not arrive at an appointment for a scheduled C-section on Thursday.
Police say Clayborn’s family reported she was last seen wearing a blue and white jogging suit, and street cameras captured her silver Nissan Altima near Northeast 63rd Street and Lake Hefner Parkway in Oklahoma City.
Clayborn’s family says her phone had been off for 9 hours before they realized she was missing
If you have any information about her disappearance, you are asked to call Midwest City Police.
OKLAHOMA CITY –
Rabbi Abby Jacobson paused and took a deep breath before speaking about the recent messages her congregation has received.
Leaders at Emanuel Synagogue say hateful communications targeting the Jewish community have increased in recent weeks.
“We’ve definitely seen an uptick in unpleasant forms of communication,” Jacobson said.
Still, Jacobson says the synagogue has also received an outpouring of support, both locally and from people in other states, including Michigan.
“People are already saying, ‘We’re sorry. We love you. Antisemitism has no home here,’” Jacobson said. “We appreciate it. We need to hear it.”
She says the rise in hateful rhetoric isn’t affecting only Jewish people.
“Being different isn’t always safe, and we are not the only people who are different,” Jacobson said.
Instead of staying stuck in fear or anger, Jacobson encourages people to take action. That could include contacting lawmakers, supporting organizations that fight hate or donating to causes that help vulnerable communities.
“By doing something that is helpful, by taking a helpful action, we feel less powerless,” she said.
Jacobson also had a message for the Jewish community: do not let hate lead to despair.
“We can’t be too bitter,” she said. “But together we will also find reasons to be happy. And together we will live our best lives. And that will be the best answer to antisemitism.”
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