OKLAHOMA CITY — A disability advocate charged under a three-year-old law with interfering with state business was arrested during the public comment section of Thursday's meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education.
Audra Beasley, 45, was handcuffed and taken away in an Oklahoma Highway Patrol vehicle after continuing to insist on her message even after the public comment period had expired. She pointed at Superintendent Ryan Walters and said, “You're an obnoxious bigot and bully!”
The law under which Beasley was arrested was passed as Senate Bill 403 in 2021, according to a Department of Public Safety spokesperson. The law makes it a crime to disrupt state affairs, such as public meetings, and defines disruption as “violent, threatening, or abusive conduct.” , obscene, or endangering the safety of yourself or others. ”
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Beasley had registered for a three-minute talk, and her message centered around her son Max's disability access.
“You intentionally denied my child bathroom access in this building,” she said.
Max uses a wheelchair and requires special equipment because he has spina bifida, a condition in which the spinal cord does not develop properly. Beasley would like to see an adult-sized changing table installed in the state building's bathroom so she can properly care for Max.
She held up a table she brought to the meeting and said she was instructed to change her son's clothes on the bathroom floor of the Oliver Hodge Building, where board meetings were held.
A state trooper reaches for handcuffs to arrest Audra Beasley, 45, of Oklahoma City, in front of her three children during Thursday's meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education. Her youngest child, who uses her wheelchair, sobbed as her brother used public comment time to ask State Superintendent Ryan Walters, “Why do you bully kids?”
Nathan J. Fish, The Oklahoman
In his comments, Beasley also criticized the committee for the policies it has supported regarding gender identity policies in schools. She says this is a concern for her because one of her children is “a member of a sexual and sexual minority group.”
After three minutes, Walters invited Beasley's other son, Wesley, to make public comments. Wesley had also registered to speak. he simply asked. “Why do you bully kids?” Disabled people, my brother, gay people, transgender people. why? “
While waiting for a response from Walters, Beasley continued to comment directly to Walters and request accommodations for her disabled son.
Beasley is an advocate of “Max's Law,” which passed the House in the 2022 session with support from Rep. Mickey Dolenz (D-Oklahoma City). The bill would have required adult-sized diaper changing tables in statehouse restrooms, but the bill died in a Senate committee.
Beasley was appointed by former Gov. Mary Fallin to serve on the Interagency Coordinating Council and served three years at the Capitol in a volunteer capacity, according to his website. She ran unsuccessfully for Oklahoma City City Council last year.
Audra Beasley, 45, of Oklahoma City, was arrested during Thursday's Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting.
Nathan J. Fish, The Oklahoman
Wesley waited at the podium for the three-minute public comment period to expire and watched as his mother was handcuffed by a state trooper. Max sobbed audibly as she continued to scream that her superintendent was “bullying transgender kids, bullying kids with disabilities.”
“Crazy. Ryan Walters,” Wesley said. Later, before Mr. Beasley was released from custody, he and his brother were picked up at the Oliver Hodge Building by a friend of his family.
Walters declined to comment on the arrest.
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