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eskielover · Sep 27, 2009, 06:35 PM

You all have been so great with your responses....I really appreciate all your opinions. Providing the detail of what happened:

I have a friend who works part time at the library in the neighboring town. The book was pornographic, nothing to do with sex education(can't remember the name of it though....sorry....she was telling me so much information I lost the name with all the other information she was talking about).

As I stated, the full time librarian pointed the book out to my friend & she looked at it, looked at the fact it was on hold for an 11 year old & immediately took it off the hold. Well, she came in the next day & was called into the director's office & several from the board of directors were there & they fired her for taking the book off the hold...for the reason that she had committed censorship. Her own boss wasn't even notified they were doing this....they pulled her in & fired her after her boss went home.

The gotcha (yes, there is a gotcha).....the other librarian that pointed out the book was also fired for being a part of the censorship. She called my friend after she was fired & told her that she thought she had gotten my friend fired. She told my friend that she had gone to the board already about that book & other books like it, not having the same protection against children accessing them as with the movies & the computer usage. She told the directors that books like that weren't appropriate in the library let alone not having safeguards in place so that children can't access books like that. They rejected her comments both times.

That said, there was no where for my friend to appeal since the board would be the place for her to go to for an appeal which she initially thought she would try to do.

The other librarian is thinking that this whole situation with that book on hold on an 11 year old's library card may have been a set up by the board to get her fired, but my friend got involved unknowingly by actually being the one to take off the hold because she felt so strongly that allowing a book like that to go out to an 11 year old was WRONG & felt the need to take that action since there was no protection procedures in place for things like that. She felt she was just maintaining the standards as set for movies & the computer access.

Each town has it's own library governing board of directors that seems to do things as they please with no standards to base their actions on. At first my friend didn't know why she was even fired.....even when they told her, when she got home & looked in her paperwork, she couldn't see where it stated that what she did was wrong let alone something to be fired over without any warning.

She has gone from feeling in shock, feeling angry, to feeling hurt, to feeling attacked. She doesn't need the job as she is retired, but the other lady who was fired need the full time job & benefits. All these emotions are really stirring up in my friend is the fight in her. The fight for righting something that is seriously wrong, the fight for protecting the children of our country let alone our community.

The other librarian that was fired took the book when she left, checked out to her so it wouldn't just disappear. We are thinking this happened for a reason because 2 fighting for a cause are louder than one & can touch more places in their war. Besides, my friend is a fighter for things that need to be right.....thinking of going to th mayer, the TV stations, the radio. the newspapers. She said who knows, I might end up arrested for standing up for what is right....but we are standing there right there next to her all the way.

Now we are talking about many wrongs being done, not just one.

Thank you so much for your replys so far.....will continue to welcome & appreciate all your replys....it is very informatiave to know how people look at these situations in these days where we seem to care more about not offending rights than we care about protecting our children.

Will also keep you posted in what is happening with this situation.....who knows what kind of war this might start....lol....or at least a good battle.

Thanks again for all your input....it is most enlightening to see where many thoughts are & it is beautiful to know it's with our children in most cases.

Thank you,
Debbie

together will be taking this situation to much higher up places. The mayor, the TV stations, the news......gladly, the board of directors met with a lady who is willing to fight for what she knows is right. They aren't even sure if the book was actally put on hold by the 11 year old with the card, or it might have been one of the board that put in on hold on a childs card (maybe one of their family) to catch the one lady because they were wanting to get rid of her & at least put her out of the way.