TULSA — A Tulsa state senator says she and her fellow Democrats have been inundated with complaints and concerns regarding perceived attacks against local control of school districts by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters.

She shares those concerns, Sen. Jo Anna Dossett (D-Tulsa) told KRMG Thursday, and thinks the issue needs to be addressed at several levels.

[Hear the KRMG In-Depth Report on Sen. Dossett’s concerns here]

For one thing, she believes the legislature needs to assert its statutory authority on educational policy, which according to a recent opinion by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, rests firmly and constitutionally with lawmakers, not with the State Department of Education.

So, she supports the call for an investigation into Walters’ activities, which House Democrats requested this week.

They asked for a bipartisan committee to look into what the Democratic Caucus refers to as Walters’ “consistent pattern of inflammatory language aimed at our public education teachers, outright lies and targeted attacks on local control.”

“I serve in the Senate, the call came from House Democrats,” Dossett told KRMG. “One thing that I really appreciate about that request, is that it asks for an investigation. It wasn’t an all-out call for impeachment. We do have to find the just cause first. There does need to be a proper investigation, it does need to be bipartisan. It does need to just kind of reestablish and reaffirm that the legislature is in charge.”

She confirms that she’s hearing from constituents almost continuously about Walters.

“Inboxes, voice mails, text messages, calls, going to the grocery store, going to church, going anywhere for the last four to six weeks, it’s just been a full-time job keeping up with constituents’ concerns about the state superintendent and his unwelcomed and unwarranted actions here in Tulsa.”

For example, posting a controversial TikTok video which police believe triggered a wave of bomb threats in the Tulsa Union district.

Walters reposted the misleading video even after the bomb threats started.

“When a statewide elected official contributes to that in any fashion, it’s just, you know, it’s just going to do so much more harm than good,” Dossett said. “And yeah, I would just beg please, put the phone down until you’ve shown us that you know how to handle it, and use it for good purposes.”

And, she wants voters to turn out for local school board elections in the metro, in order to keep extremists from winning seats on those boards.

One school board member she believes to be extremist may have triggered Walters’ recent attacks on the Tulsa superintendent.

“The school board member maybe got their feelings hurt that they were warned ‘don’t say the prayer at the graduation,’” and you know started a little fire, started a tantrum,” Dossett told KRMG. “And then (the) state superintendent saw it, and used it as an excuse to host some kind of rally outside of a partisan - a county partisan headquarters. A rally, about education, outside of a party headquarters.”

School board seats are, by state law, nonpartisan.

“Find a reasonable candidate you can support, who’s not running on a partisan platform for a nonpartisan seat,” Dossett urged voters. “Get behind that candidate, and make sure that they’re on your local school board, and not some extremist.”

KRMG has reached out to Walters’ office for a response.