Kansas education commissioner Randy Watson said during a conference earlier this month that as a child, he convinced his out-of-state cousins that American Indians posed a bigger threat to their safety than tornadoes.
The Kansas State Department of Education provided access to the video of Watson’s remarks in response to an open records request filed Wednesday by Kansas Reflector. The video is of Watson’s hourlong keynote presentation at the Kansas Virtual Learning Conference, which took place from Feb. 14-15.
The event was hosted by the Andover Center for Advanced Professional Studies. About 40 minutes into the presentation, Watson talks about how he used to teach in Andover. Shortly after he left, he said, the town was devastated by the April 1991 tornado outbreak.