An NBC News article buries the mention of child pornography charges against an Oklahoma school principal who moonlighted as a drag queen and resigned when the charges came to light.
Last month, Shane Murnan, a 52-year-old man who performs in drag as Shantel Mandalay, resigned as head principal at John Glenn Elementary in Oklahoma City. The Western Heights school board voted Monday to accept Murnan’s resignation.
An Oklahoma principal with a side gig as a drag queen says he was forced to resign under pressure from state Superintendent Ryan Walters and others. https://t.co/bLg3U8gnfJ
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 13, 2024
In the months leading up to his resignation, a substack called V1SUT posted about Murnan’s previous arrest on child pornography charges, putting pressure on the school district to reexamine its hire.
Murnan was arrested in 2001 after police found four images of children engaged in sex acts on his computer, court documents say. However, the charges were ultimately dropped when a judge ruled that prosecutors had not proven that the people in the photos were underage.
At the time, Murnan was a 30-year-old fifth-grade teacher at a different elementary school in the Oklahoma City area.
Back in June when Murnan was hired at John Glenn, the school district acknowledged that it was aware of the old charges. Nevertheless, the district said Murnan came “highly recommended” and said they were “very excited about his vision” for the school.
Soon after he was hired, however, the former charges against the teacher went viral. The popular X account Libs of TikTok posted about Murnan, and State Superintendent Ryan Walters called for him to be fired.
Meet Shane Murnan- elementary principal at @wh_isd.
Shane is a drag queen who performs for children and reads books about gender to kids while dressed in drag.
Shane was also previously arrested on child porn charges.
Would you want this person in charge of your kid’s school? pic.twitter.com/yNuZyt3HRK
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 30, 2023
“I’ve heard from parents all over the state,” Walters said in September. “They want this principal out of the school, and I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure that that happens.”
Finally last month, Murnan said that Superintendent Brayden Savage told him that if he didn’t resign, the district would fire him because of the cost of increased security due to threats the school was receiving.
NBC’s Monday article focused on Murnan’s drag persona rather than the “decades-old criminal charges against Murnan that were dropped,” which it first mentions were related to child pornography way down in the 13th paragraph.
“He never had a problem with his dual identities, he said, until last year,” NBC’s article says.
“I’m a very professional person — I’ve worked really hard,” NBC quoted Murnan as saying. “I’ve gone to school. I got my bachelor’s, my master’s, my doctorate — I have been devoted to education, trying to make it a better thing. But they’ve destroyed me, and I don’t know where I’m going or what I’m doing now. This has been a nightmare.”
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The article also says Murnan is the “latest example of an educator singled out by Walters over ideological disagreements.”
The piece finishes with a quote from Murnan, who laments that “right now, it’s not about the kids in Oklahoma” but “all about politics.”