Oklahoma teacher suing Ryan Walters says Libs of TikTok terrorized him for years

An Oklahoma school teacher is suing former state Superintendent Ryan Walters for defamation. The lawsuit contends Walters worked in concert with Chaya Raichik, founder of the Libs of TikTok social media account, to terrorize the teacher for nearly 1,000 days.

The legal complaint was filed years after Walters, a Republican with a long anti-LGBTQ+ record, threatened Regan Killackey’s teaching license over allegations that the teacher had threatened Donald Trump.

Walters’ accusation stemmed from a 2019 family photo of Killackey’s young son attacking his daughter with a plastic sword while she wore a Trump mask, according to Oklahoma Watch.

Walters took issue with the photo only after a failed assassination attempt on Trump in 2024. At the time, the superintendent vowed to revoke the teaching licenses of any teachers who threatened harm against the president and spotlighted Killackey’s photo, which was then more than five years old.

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“This resulted in harm to, among other things, (Killackey’s) reputation and employment,” the lawsuit filed by Killackey against Walters and the Oklahoma Department of Education states.

Attorney Cameron Spradling said on social media that the Walters-led Oklahoma Education Department wrongfully used the AWAREITY pre-incident prevention system — technology intended to identify crimes before they happen — to instead target professional teachers in the state. Spradling alleged Walters coordinated with LibsOfTikTok to terrorize Killackey online.

The account posted Killackey’s family photo on X in 2024, where it has been viewed more than 1.2 million times.

Raichik and Libs of TikTok have repeatedly faced accusations of engaging in stochastic terrorism, a term used to describe public rhetoric that inspires harassment or violence by followers without explicitly directing them to act. The Advocate has extensively documented bomb threats and harassment campaigns that followed Libs of TikTok posts targeting schools, hospitals, libraries, drag events, and LGBTQ+ people.

Raichik has openly mocked and embraced the label. In one interview highlighted by Media Matters, she laughed about critics calling her a “stochastic terrorist” and said the accusation made her “feel really important.”

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Killackey claims that the state’s punitive action violated his First Amendment right to free speech.

In an official court response, attorneys for the state denied that Killackey should be entitled to any financial relief over the episode. The state, in its response, admits to many of the actions for which it is accused in Killackey’s lawsuit, and Walters’ successor reversed the decision to pursue Killackey’s teaching license after taking over.

Walters spent years using his position to target LGBTQ+ youth before his abrupt resignation in 2025. He left to become CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a conservative nonprofit dedicated to fighting teachers’ unions nationwide. But the departure came shortly after Walters was reportedly caught viewing pornographic images on his computer during a government meeting.