Oklahoma’s Elite State Boarding School Has No Title IX Protections. A Resigning Administrator Called It a Crisis.
Two years after Oklahoma Watch revealed pervasive sexual harassment and bullying at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, the state-funded residential school for high-achieving students still lacks the federal student protection policies that apply to virtually every other school in the country — and a departing administrator warned the board in writing that the situation was unsustainable.
As Jennifer Palmer reported, Cecil Lewis resigned as vice president for academics after just four months, leaving behind an email warning that the school was “one serious incident away from a crisis that could erase years of goodwill.” Among his chief concerns was the school’s refusal to adopt Title IX, Section 504 and FERPA protections on the grounds that it receives no federal funding. Lewis characterized that position as dangerously incomplete and said the attorney general’s office had indicated the spirit of those laws needed to be followed regardless.
Three Title IX attorneys who reviewed the school’s student handbook at Oklahoma Watch’s request said it lacked critical elements: a designated reporting official, defined investigation standards, a timeline, written outcomes for complainants, interim protective measures and an appeal process. A survey of the dozen comparable residential STEM high schools nationwide found all of them have Title IX policies — including those that, like OSSM, operate without federal funding.
Oklahoma Watch sought Lewis’s resignation email through a January open records request. The school’s board denied it six months later. The email was obtained from an anonymous source.
OSSM, which received $7.2 million in state appropriations this year, also eliminated its human resources position in 2021, leaving personnel oversight to administrators without professional HR training.
School president Tony Cornforth did not respond to interview requests.
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▲=Possible paywall
Since federal protections took effect, Oklahoma now hosts one of the largest wintering concentrations of bald eagles in the lower 48 states.
Ciao for now,
Ted Streuli
Executive Director, Oklahoma Watch
tstreuli@oklahomawatch.org
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