Community Follow-up to Canceled Author Visit

Over the past two days, there was an article in the Daily Herald and also some conversations on social media about a canceled author visit at Longfellow Elementary. Based on the content of the article, we can absolutely understand why members of our community might feel that the District doesn’t support and care for all students. Please know that we hear and understand community concerns.
We wanted to provide the community with some background information to add to the conversation.
Earlier this school year, the Longfellow Elementary Library scheduled an author visit for October 2, 2019, to have Robin Stevenson present and promote her book, Kid Activists.
District 200’s practice for scheduling author visits is to notify parents/guardians about the visit and the content of the book being presented and promoted well in advance of the program. This process allows parents/guardians the opportunity to request that their child be exempt from participating in the program.
The day before the author’s visit, a parent contacted Longfellow Administration with concerns about the process we utilize to inform parents about author visits and the contents of the presentation and promotion. It was at that time Administration was informed that the school did not communicate to Longfellow parents information about the content of the book being presented and promoted by the author. As a result, parents/guardians were not provided a sufficient opportunity to review the information and determine whether they wanted their child to participate in the program. Parents were only informed of the author’s visit, not the content of the book, presentation and promotion.
There has been discussion in the community about the reason the author’s visit was canceled. The event was not canceled because of a specific character in the book; the event was canceled based on the lack of appropriate notification of the author’s visit.
Upon this realization, the Longfellow Administration attempted multiple times to get in contact with the author’s representatives, who scheduled the visit, to discuss the situation. The Administration regrets the late cancellation of the author’s visit. The Administration did attempt to reach out to the author directly to discuss the reason for canceling the visit. We look forward to speaking with the author and discussing the possibility of scheduling a visit to our school community in the future.
In District 200, we care deeply for all students. On a daily basis, our staff works very hard to ensure that we are creating and sustaining an inclusive culture where all children feel safe and supported. As we reflect on this situation, we are certainly taking steps to address the circumstances that led to the canceled visit.
