Hoover City Schools teachers are demanding transparency and change after the district pulled its invitation to bring a best-selling Black children’s book author to three of its elementary schools this month.

“We all teach children who would benefit from the opportunity of meeting an author who looks like them and shares their cultural background and is a role model for them,” said Kent Haines, a math teacher at Simmons Middle School. “This was such a great one of those opportunities that we’ve now lost.”

Derrick Barnes, known for his books featuring Black children, was initially contacted in April of 2022 to speak at three Hoover elementary schools in February of this year. But the district abruptly canceled the visits last month, originally citing contract issues.

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Superintendent Dee Fowler, however, told AL.com later that an elementary school principal was contacted by a parent who alleged some of Barnes’ prior social media posts contained “controversial ideas.” Hoover officials said they did not see the alleged posts and could not say what was in the posts the parent complained about.

Several Hoover teachers said they were concerned about the decision to cancel Barnes’ visit and about the district’s shifting explanations.

“We find ourselves greatly concerned that the district’s decisions in this matter were not prudent and that the communication with the stakeholders in our community about the cancellations lacked forthrightness and transparency,” Haines and Reed Lochamy, another Hoover teacher, wrote in a letter to district leaders on Friday, Feb. 3

The letter was emailed to Fowler, Chief Academic Officer Terry Lamar, and all five members of the Hoover school board and signed by 140 people who said they were Hoover City Schools educators. More than 100 teachers added their full names to the letter, and the remainder showed anonymous support, Haines said.

In the letter, the teachers called on the district to provide a “full and honest account” of the cancellation, to clarify its policy for handling parent complaints and to better communicate any decisions that arise from those complaints to the public.

“Mr. Barnes is a nationally recognized, award-winning author who is precisely the sort of speaker that Hoover should be proud to host,” the letter continued. “To cancel a visit from an author of his stature would require a significant, specific, and well-documented concern that his presence would somehow be inappropriate.

“In the absence of a clear and compelling explanation as to why such a decision was made, a reasonable person could infer from the information currently available that the decision was made for reasons other than those in the best interests of our students, possibly even in response to a single parent complaint.”

Hoover is one of the most diverse school systems in the state. The district’s website says educators are “committed to meeting the diverse needs of students” and remedying inequities.

Haines decided to help write the letter, he said, because he wanted the community to see teachers he works with were still committed to those ideals.

And personally, he said, he felt embarrassed about the message that the news of the decision was sending to students and parents.

“I’m worried that we’re going to accede to these sorts of complaints based on a fear of political backlash as opposed to based on what we think is the best opportunity for our students to have an enriching and full educational experience,” he said in an interview with AL.com.

In addition to the group’s demands for more transparency, Haines said he’d like to see a “clear, sustained commitment” toward providing students with more opportunities to learn from diverse perspectives.

“I want to say that I I love Hoover City Schools, and I believe that we are better than this moment,” he said. “But that will be proven to our parents and our students through the actions of the district, not through their words, moving forward.”