Former state Superintendent Sandy Garrett denies ordering her e-mail account deleted
Former Oklahoma schools Superintendent Sandy Garrett said Saturday she didn't direct a state employee to delete her e-mail account and is positive the deleted e-mails can be retrieved, The Associated Press reports.
According to the AP, a state Department of Education employee who helps maintain the e-mail accounts said Garrett asked her late on Jan. 7 to delete the account immediately.
Garrett's version of that conversation was the exact opposite.
"I certainly wouldn't order anybody to delete anything," Garrett told the AP. "The first call I got on this, I thought it was a joke."
The article doesn't address the claim reported Saturday that Garrett was communicating with her staff via her private e-mail accounts or what happened to those e-mails.
I still hope, as I noted on this blog Saturday, that there has a misunderstanding and all Garrett's e-mails conducting the public's business remain available at the Education Department.
Because if Garrett did order her e-mail account wiped clean, that would be one of the most outrageous and egregious violations of the public trust by a statewide elected official that I've seen in Oklahoma.
Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications