OKLAHOMA CITY (LifeSiteNews) – The Western Heights School Board voted Monday to accept the resignation of principal Shane Brent Murnan, whose hiring sparked outrage among the community last fall over revelations that he moonlighted as a drag queen and had been arrested on drug and child pornography charges.
In September, the online publication V1SUT Vantage called attention to the hiring of Murnan as principal of John Glenn Elementary School in southwest Oklahoma City. Outside of his work as an educator, Murnan openly publicized that he also worked as a drag queen under the stage name “Shantel Mandalay,” and in 2018 had co-founded Oklahoma City Drag Queen Story Hour, Inc. (Murnan was one of two known drag queens hired for John Glenn Elementary. The second, Paul Caplan Stafford, was hired on Murnan’s recommendation last summer to work as his kindergarten aide.)
Even more alarmingly, in 2001 Murnan had been arrested for possession of both drugs and child pornography. As reported by The Oklahoman in 2002, an “Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation search recovered four deleted images of children engaged in sex acts” from his computer.
“A reliable inside source has informed this publication that the Western Heights School Board was informed of at least Murnan’s after-hours persona as drag queen Shantel Mandalay prior to approving his hire as a principal,” V1SUT reported at the time. When Western Heights Public Schools announced Murnan’s hiring in June, it confirmed it was “aware of previous charges that were dismissed more than 20 years ago,” without specifying what those charges were.
READ: Drag queen who danced for kids charged with 25 counts of child pornography
NBC News reported that the controversy was enough to keep Murnan from being allowed to show up for work in the building since September over “security concerns,” and now the ongoing public outrage, including alleged bomb threats, have prompted Murnan to offer his resignation and the board to accept.
NBC declined to delve into the details of the child pornography case, mentioning it only briefly.
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who has aggressively lobbied against “woke ideology” and sexual grooming in public education, celebrated the “common sense” development as a “big win” and pledged that those responsible for hiring Murnan in the first place “will be held accountable.”
Drag queens don’t belong in the classroom. This is common sense. @libsoftiktok pic.twitter.com/Efnk3yOeuj
— Superintendent Ryan Walters (@RyanWaltersSupt) February 2, 2024
Drag queens do not belong in Oklahoma schools. Zero tolerance.
Principal with drag queen side gig resigns under pressure from Oklahoma schools officialhttps://t.co/PZQHHNZkKe
— Superintendent Ryan Walters (@RyanWaltersSupt) February 14, 2024
The indoctrination of children on sexuality and other left-wing agenda items has long been a major concern in American public schools, from libraries to athletic and restroom policy to drag events to classroom materials to even socially “transitioning” troubled children without parental input. The influential American Library Association, currently helmed by a self-described “Marxist lesbian,” opposes denying children access to age-inappropriate materials.
Drag in particular has emerged as one of LGBT activists’ favored tools for exposing and acclimating children to the concepts of gender fluidity and sexual experimentation via “family-friendly” drag shows at schools and community events or Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) events in which cross-dressers read books to children, often at public libraries.
READ: Media pays no attention when drag queen ‘mom’ is convicted of 11 child sex abuse crimes
DQSH organizers admit that the concept is intended to give children “unabashedly queer role models,” promote so-called “gender fluidity of childhood,” teach children to “defy rigid gender restrictions,” and mold them into “bright lights of change in their communities.”
Many of these events have exposed children to sexually perverted performances and drag queens who range from X-rated performers in their day jobs to convicted pedophiles and prostitutes, as well as materials promoting sexual promiscuity, including distributing condoms.
In recent years, these issues have helped fuel a parent backlash that has been credited with Republican gains in states like Florida and Virginia, whose current governors have taken leading roles in fighting back.