Tulsa World

Jenks Public Schools will no longer show a documentary film that suggests Islamic terrorists might have been behind the Oklahoma City bombing, after a complaint from a Muslim parent.

The History Channel film, “Conspiracy: Oklahoma City Bombing,” examines a variety of conspiracy theories about the 1995 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing, which killed 168 people.

“We’re very happy about the decision,” said Adam Soltani, executive director of the Oklahoma Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which worked with the parent in filing the complaint.

“This was never about making things difficult for the school,” he said, “but about bringing to light the fact that we live in a more diverse society.”

Soltani and several Muslim parents of Jenks students met in May with administrators to express their concerns that the film could lead to confusion and misinformation, and also hostility toward students of Middle Eastern and Muslim background.

They were instructed to file a request to have the film reviewed by the school’s Materials Review Committee, which one of the parents did in June.

That committee rejected the request to remove the film, saying it was being used to teach students critical analysis.

CAIR-Oklahoma then worked with the parent to issue an appeal letter, Soltani said, and in a letter dated Aug. 5, the school said that a committee of district-level administrators had further reviewed the film, and decided to remove it from the collection in the Freshman Academy Media Center.

Jenks Public Schools did not immediately respond to requests for an interview.