Hoover school board calls special meeting Thursday, possibly concerning teacher's racial slur

The Hoover school board has called a special meeting for Thursday morning to deal with a personnel matter, possibly concerning the issue of the Hoover High teacher who used a racial slur in her classroom Friday.

Superintendent Kathy Murphy tonight would not specify the personnel matter to be handled Thursday, but she did say she had thoroughly investigated the incident that happened at Hoover High on Friday and was “prepared to move forward with a recommendation from the superintendent to the board.”

Murphy said she met today with a handful of students who were in the classroom Friday when food and nutrition teacher Terri Butcher told them to “turn the n----- music off” when she found them playing hip hop music. Their parents also were in the meeting, she said.

“They were very open and talked about what happened and how they felt about that,” Murphy said. “I hope they understand we wanted to hear them and appreciate the things they had to share. It was most productive.”

Murphy said the teacher involved had indicated the music that was playing when she returned to her classroom Friday had the n-word in it, but the students disputed that. They said the song being played was Tupac Shakur’s “Dear Mama.”

Murphy said she listened to the song and its lyrics. “It has no profanity nor the n-word in that piece of music,” she said. “It’s really a very sweet song about Tupac’s mother and what they went through together.”

But the issue of what song was playing is less important, Murphy said. “I’m concerned with what she chose to say,” Murphy said. “We’re all accountable for what comes out of our mouths.”

Murphy said she and Hoover High Principal Don Hulin also met today with the school’s Minority Achievement Council and their advisor. They talked about how everyone can take what happened and learn from it and how to move forward, she said.

They are a terrific group of students, and she will be asking some of them to join her Superintendent’s Advisory Council, she said.

Murphy also confirmed student reports that an assistant principal at the school had encouraged students to delete video recordings of what happened in the classroom Friday. It is the practice of administrators at Hoover High to ask that videos be deleted if the recordings are likely to get other people agitated, she said.

When asked if she supports that practice, Murphy said she would reserve judgment on that and said she could understand arguments for and against that practice. She understands how some people might consider that to be a form of covering up wrongdoing, she said.

“I’m sure that’s something we’ll all be talking through,” she said. “This incident — as unfortunate and as bad as it is — my challenge is to take this and learn as much as we can from this difficult and unfortunate situation that shouldn’t have happened and make it as good as we can.”

Thursday’s meeting of the Hoover school board is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. at the Farr Administration Building at 2810 Metropolitan Way.