Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson made an offhand—and deeply offensive—comment during a meeting last week, and now the governor wants him to hit the road. During a virtual conference call, Watson allegedly rehashed a childhood story in which he told someone that they had a “higher chance of coming to Kansas and getting killed by an Indian” rather than dying in a tornado. After an outcry over the comment, Watson reportedly apologized for his offensive statement. But Gov. Laura Kelly still wants him to resign from the role that he’s held since 2015. “While Education Commissioner Randy Watson has had a long career in advocating for our children in Kansas, the State and the Kansas Board of Education must take issues of derogatory and discriminatory language seriously,” Kelly said. The Kansas school board will host a special meeting about the incident on Friday.
