A woman who has long advocated for adult changing tables to be installed in public buildings was escorted, handcuffed, out of the Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting Thursday morning.
Five Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers took Audra Beasley out of the room while one of her children stood at a podium to address state board members, including the superintendent of schools public Ryan Walters. Another of her children – a younger one in a wheelchair – cried as she watched her mother being taken away.
One of the soldiers, realizing Beasley had two children in the room, walked over to the crying child and asked if he was okay. Two people from the audience helped escort the children out of the room. Neither Walters nor any of the board members said anything.
Beasley, 45, was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail on $500 bail on a misdemeanor complaint of willfully disrupting, interfering or disrupting state business.
Beasley had just finished speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting, during which a maximum of 10 members of the public have three minutes each to address board members. Beasley forcefully asked Walters what he had done to advocate for students with disabilities and said she was tired of being told by state employees to use the bathroom floor to change her child.
At one point, Beasley told Walters she brought her own changing table for her son, then she slammed a small plastic folding table onto the glass-covered table.
When her speaking time was up, one of her sons followed her to the podium, but Beasley continued speaking, standing next to the board table in the cramped meeting room. The officers asked her to sit down, and when Beasley didn’t, they surrounded her and one of them put handcuffs on her.
Although she raised her voice, Beasley never swore or threatened Walters or any board member. As the soldiers escorted her from the room, she turned to Walters and said, “You are a bigot and a hateful tyrant. »
After the meeting, Walters approached the Oklahoma Highway Patrol for comment on the incident.
Beasley has spoken at previous board meetings on the same topic. His Facebook page has a profile photo calling for the impeachment of Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat.
In 2023, Beasley, a paralegal, ran unsuccessfully for the Ward 5 city council seat in Oklahoma City.
During the campaign, she told The Oklahoman that she advocates for the rights of people with disabilities and believes more needs to be done to eliminate barriers to access that keep citizens living with intellectual disabilities and isolated and discriminated against.
She also advocated for the unhoused population and advocated for trauma-informed intervention training for first responders.
This article was originally published on Oklahoman: State troopers escort woman from Oklahoma Board of Regents…
