OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — State Superintendent Ryan Walters ordered the removal the portraits highlighting the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame from the Oklahoma State Department of Education building, his press office confirmed Friday.
Walters issued a statement in part that the attention the move caused is “just a fake uproar distracting from improving Oklahoma’s education system.”
Walters said he wants to instead highlight students and parents on the walls.
2011 Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Donnie L. Nero, Sr. told 2 News Oklahoma he's surprised by the decision.
Just like his mentor Janet Barresi, Ryan Walters has dismantled the Educators Hall of Fame “Wall of Honor” from the State Department of Education. #oklaed pic.twitter.com/4081NuufxN
— Oklahomans for Public Education (@ok4publiced) February 16, 2023
“There’s really not any reason to do it," Nero said. "How many walls do you have in that building where you can showcase students (and) showcase parents? But we don’t have to come in and eliminate and remove those individuals.”
Dr. Nero has a long history in northeast Oklahoma education. He’s been a teacher, dean, and president. He said he'd like to sit down with Walters and explain why it's wrong to remove the portraits of the inductees, which include Francis Tuttle, who forged Oklahoma’s vocational-tech schools, Dr. F.D. Moon, the first Black president of Oklahoma City Board of Education, and Joy Hofmeister, Walter’s predecessor.
In a statement Friday, Supt. Walters said,
“All the photographs will be sent to the local teachers’ unions. When my administration is over, the unions can use donor money and their lobbyists to take down photographs of students and parents and reinstall the photographs of administrators and bureaucrats.”
“To be able to say, 'Well, I'm gonna take these portraits down and put up some parents and recognize kids,' well that's what these people did,” Nero said in response to the statement.
Nero added that he doesn't need his photo recognized in public nor does he want to politicize his profession. But he warns Walters’ words set a dangerous precedent.
“No good can come from that," Nero said.
"Negative things are going to happen. So why does he not want to sit down with public school educators, teachers, and superintendents of these schools and get some input from them instead of just doing things without some consideration of those people who have given so much for the cause of Oklahoma?”
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