OKLAHOMA CITY — Epic Charter Schools’ lawsuit against a sitting state legislator has been dismissed.
On Wednesday, Oklahoma County District Judge Cindy Truong ruled that comments and press releases from state Sen. Ron Sharp (R-Shawnee) didn't meet the definition of actual malice, the standard used to prove libel and slander against a public entity. In its complaint, Epic was seeking at least $75,000 in damages. A former public school teacher and a member of the Senate’s Education Subcommittee on Appropriations, Sharp has publicly challenged how student attendance is monitored at the online charter school. He has also filed several bills for the current session specifically addressing the oversight of charter schools.
Back in September, the online charter school sent the state senator a cease and desist letter in response to several press releases published by his office. Sharp’s press statements questioned how Epic could receive state aid in previous school years for up to 4,000 secondary students enrolled at its blended learning centers in Tulsa and Oklahoma counties. As per Epic’s website, the blended learning sites were limited to early childhood and elementary students until the 2019- 2020 academic year.
Excluding enrollment numbers from those blended learning sites, Epic Charter School is now the state’s seventh-largest school district, trailing only Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Edmond, Moore, Putnam City, and Broken Arrow. The school is also currently under investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for allegations of forgery, embezzlement, racketeering and obtaining money by false pretenses.