Oklahoma
Oklahoma public school students could soon earn credit through ‘Satanic Temple Academy’
OKLAHOMA CITY (KSWO) – The Satanic Temple is once again announcing plans for the Sooner State after a bill was sent to the governor’s desk which could allow students to receive class credits for religious and moral instruction off school campuses.
House Bill 1425 would force school districts to adopt a policy which allows students to go off-campus to attend a religious or moral instruction course taught by an independent entity. The student would be allowed to miss up to three class periods per week to attend such a course.
Instructors of these courses would not need to be licensed or certified teachers.
The bill’s language also states students would not be able to miss classes at their school in which the subject matter is open to assessment requirements. The student’s parents or guardians would have to provide written consent in order for the student to take the outside course.
School district funds, other than administrative costs, would not be involved in the outside instruction, according to the bill.
In response to the bill being one step away from becoming the state’s newest law, The Satanic Temple is highlighting their own learning academy that Oklahoma students could use to possibly earn school credit.
In a post on social media, the religious group stated their Hellion Academy of Independent Learning (HAIL) could soon be available for Oklahoma students.
“The Satanic Temple believes that public schools should be free from religious influence,” the post said. “We are, however, prepared to ensure our members’ children receive the same opportunities as those participating in other religion’s programs. By not vetoing HB 1425, Governor Stitt will allow the state to grant elective credit for religious and morality classes taught by The Satanic Temple, making it possible for parents to invite TST’s HAIL program to their local public schools as soon as this fall.”
The post ended with the group asking if Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt will be the first to award school credit for courses taught by The Satanic Temple.
In order for the course to be considered for credit, the course would have to evaluated based on the following secular criteria:
- The amount of classroom instruction time;
- The course syllabus, which reflects the course requirements and any materials used in the course;
- Methods of assessment used in the course; and
- The qualifications of the course instructor.
While The Satanic Temple does not believe in the actual existence of Satan or even the supernatural, they do consider themselves a religion that is divorced from superstition. The group is even already a federally recognized religious organization.
Their seven fundamental tenets are the following:
| Tenet Number | Tenet Language |
|---|---|
| 1 | One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason. |
| 2 | The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions. |
| 3 | One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone. |
| 4 | The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one’s own. |
| 5 | Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs. |
| 6 | People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused. |
| 7 | Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word. |
This bill is aimed at public schools, and there is a provision within the it stating charter schools would not be affected by the measure.
Found out how your Southwest-based elected officials voted on this bill below:
| Elected Official | Vote |
|---|---|
| Rep. Boles (R-Marlow) | Against |
| Rep. Trey Caldwell (R-Lawton) | Against |
| Rep. Hasenbeck (R-Elgin) | For |
| Rep. Kendrix (R-Altus) | For |
| Rep. McEntire (R-Duncan) | Against |
| Rep. Pae (R-Lawton) | Against |
| Rep. Worthen (R-Lawton) | Against |
| Sen. Deevers (R-Elgin) | For |
| Sen. Garvin (R-Duncan) | For |
| Sen. Howard (R-Altus) | For |
| Sen. Jech (R-Kingfisher) | For |
| Sen. Kidd (R-Waurika) | For |
Copyright 2024 KSWO. All rights reserved.
WACO, Texas (KXXV) — To say the least, it has been a memorable four games for Baylor football so far this season.
A walk off field goal by Arizona State at McLane Stadium brings the Bears to 2-2 for the season and now they are heading to Stillwater looking to bounce back against Oklahoma State.
Watch the full story here:
Baylor looks to bounce back in road game against Oklahoma State
“Saturday’s game was a tough one,” head coach Dave Aranda said. “But, I think the message there is that hey, you can prepare, you can practice, you can do all of the things — that doesn’t mean you’re gonna win. There’s still more things that you gotta do.”
“There’s no participation trophy for preparing right and staying late and doing the extra all these details matter and so we’re really focused on that,” he added.
The Bears enter Stillwater following the firing of Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy after 21 years on the job. While the Cowboys are reeling, the Bears understand that they still have a talented roster.
“They play hard, you know. They get after the ball, their record doesn’t reflect the kind of team they are. They got a lot of talent and they’re gonna be ready to play,” safety Devyn Bobby said.
“Same thing we always talk about — respect all, fear none. We take that into every week, you know they’re still a great program. They have great coaching staff, great athletes on the field, so we gotta be prepared and ready for them,” wide receiver Kobe Prentice said.
After the Arizona State game, head coach Aranda spoke about complimentary football. While the defense had a great game last week, the offense struggled — and they are looking to find that balance.
“Obviously we didn’t get the win, so we got to get better so you know a lot of people might say we had a great game but we didn’t get to win — we could have had more stops, had more turnovers, but you know we’re still having to attack everyday mindset and we’re trying to get better,” Bobby said.
“The higher level than all of that is the team is that you know if one side’s down the other side picks it up. We need to be able to have that, you know, when we’ve played at the level that we need to play, we play that way and so we’re going to continue to aim for it,” Aranda said.
Baylor vs Oklahoma State is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. this Saturday.
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Mike Gundy thinks Oklahoma State football woes are ‘fixable’ this season
Mike Gundy says he has no desire to stop coaching the Oklahoma State football program amid the Cowboys’ 11-game losing streak against FBS competition.
Oklahoma State football has fired head coach Mike Gundy after 21 seasons, the program announced on Tuesday, Sept. 23.
Gundy, previously the second-longest tenured head coach with one program in college football, led the Cowboys to a 1-2 start this season, including a 19-12 loss to in-state foe Tulsa on Sept. 19, which was OSU’s first at home to Tulsa since 1951. Oklahoma State also lost to Oregon 69-3 in Week 2.
“Cowboy Football reached an unprecedented level of success and national prominence under Coach Gundy’s leadership,” OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg said in the announcement. “I believe I speak for OSU fans everywhere when I say that we are grateful for all he did to raise the standard and show us all what is possible for Oklahoma State football.”
Oklahoma State is amid its longest losing streak to Power Four teams in program history, having lost 11 straight against such teams. The Cowboys went 3-9 last season and were winless in Big 12 play. Gundy leaves the program with a 170-90 career record and has the school’s winningest coach of all time. He has 108 more wins than Pat Jones, who ranks second in program history with 62 wins.
Gundy is owed a $15 million buyout from the school due to be fired prior to Dec. 31, 2027, according to his contract obtained by the USA TODAY Network.
Gundy said after the Tulsa loss that he had no interest in 2025 being his final season with the program, and was swarmed with questions about his future with the school.
“In 21 years it’s a different position than I’ve been in,” Gundy said. “As I say every week, my job is to evaluate the overall program, players, the systems … And then I have to make a decision on where we’re at based on what we have. That’s what I do. We’ve certainly been in a different situation a lot of years in a row, but currently we’re not in that situation.”
The 58-year-old coach helped build Oklahoma State into a perennial Big 12 title contender after taking over for Les Miles in 2005. He nearly led the Cowboys to the national championship in 2011, and was Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2010, 2021 and 2023.
The fall from grace was fast for the program, as the Cowboys earned a spot in the Big 12 championship in 2023, and also beat archrival Oklahoma in the final Bedlam for the foreseeable future.
Gundy, a former Oklahoma State quarterback and Midwest City, Oklahoma, native, has only coached four seasons at other schools in his career, serving as passing-game coordinator at Baylor in 1996 and receivers coach at Maryland from 1997-99. He was an assistant at Oklahoma State from 1990-95, and again from 2001-04.
Oklahoma State will turn to a new coach for the first time in over 20 years for the 2026 season, and they’ll look to lead the program back to the heights of Gundy’s prime in Stillwater.
The Big 12 is still having a rough time in the national landscape.
Over the weekend, the Big 12 had some interesting matchups as it secured an unbeaten record in nonconference games. While a couple of matchups between Big 12 teams on Friday kept the conference from having a perfect record, the 12 teams in action combined for a 10-2 mark, which is the best they could have achieved in Week 3.
However, that didn’t mean a whole lot for the Big 12 in the AP poll, which dropped on Sunday. The conference had only three teams in the top 25, with No. 12 Iowa State, No. 16 Utah and No. 17 Texas Tech representing the Big 12.
In terms of how bad that is for the Big 12, the conference’s most recent departures in Texas and Oklahoma came in at Nos. 8 and 11, respectively. Meanwhile, the other three power conferences have at least one team in the top four and multiple teams in the top seven.
Of course, the AP poll is only good for discussions, as evidenced by winless Notre Dame’s inclusion, with the independent program riding the coattails of last season’s runner-up performance. The real rankings won’t come until the final weeks of the year, with the College Football Playoff’s top 25 ultimately being all that matters in the end.
To put it simply, the AP poll is unlikely to have any impact on OSU this season. The Cowboys’ loss at Oregon will keep them from receiving a single vote for quite some time, even if they could somehow put together a sizeable winning streak starting with the Tulsa matchup.
Of course, if the Cowboys could find a way to put together any sort of streak, perhaps in a similar fashion to 2023’s winning streak, they might be able to break through anyway, given the Big 12’s status nationally. Sure, the Cowboys won’t be any sort of contender at the national level any time soon, but a 5-1 start would probably be good enough to get them into the polls and the Big 12 title conversation.
In terms of the long-term future, the Pokes might not even be saved by any type of resurgence. Considering the Big 12 is easily the laughing stock of the Power Four, it needs a program to essentially save it from becoming irrelevant in the national landscape.
With OSU being the laughing stock of the Big 12, there’s no reason to expect the Cowboys to be the saviors the conference desperately needs.
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