The bipartisan task force assigned to evaluate the House of Representatives’ Page Program has voted unanimously to restart the program beginning this week with immediate changes.

The Page Program Task Force has recommended moving to male only and female only weeks through the end of the legislative session as they continue to evaluate the program and study best practices from other states.  The Task Force has also recommended increasing security for the program. Based upon those recommendations, the program restarted beginning April 1. The Task Force will continue to meet as it evaluates the program to consider additional changes.

“We believe this is a program worth having, and that we should continue to provide these opportunities for our students,” said Task Force Chairman Terry O’Donnell, R-Catoosa. “We are taking the protection of our pages very seriously, and we are making immediate changes that will enhance safety for our participants..”

“This committee had two primary goals,” said Task Force member Ben Loring, D-Miami. “First, we wanted to make certain that future pages will be safe. Second, as long as we accomplished the first goal, we wanted to keep the program open and accessible to Oklahoma students throughout the remainder of session. I feel like we have accomplished both of these goals.”