Library Board denies book appeal 4-1 on basis of trust

DAYTON–The Columbia County Rural Library Board of Trustees (CCRL) were greeted by a group of picketers prior to hearing their first appeal regarding a controversial book about transgender and/or nonbinary lifestyles, the policy supporting inclusion of the book in the Dayton Memorial Library being upheld by a 4-1 board vote during its monthly meeting February 27.

The appeal was to discuss Director Todd Vandenbark's decision to retain the book "What's the T?" by Juno Dawson, in the wake of multiple requests for the book to be reviewed after it was found on display. In addition, guest presenter Tamara Meredith, Ph.D., Jefferson County Library Director, spoke to the CCRL Board about intellectual freedom.

About a dozen citizens gathered outside of the Dayton Memorial Library to protest sexually explicit books in the children's library.

"I came to send a strong message against sexually explicit materials purchased with our tax dollars for minors," said Brigette Walker, one of the picketers. "The library, not just parents, has a responsibility to protect children from unnecessary and early exposure to sexuality."

"The Library Board needs to rewrite their policies and procedures that better suit the morals and ideals of the majority of our community and not the Board's," said another picketer, Bobbi Ruddell.

A nearly packed room and another 17 on Zoom were present for the meeting. Director Vandenbark reported seven to eight kids on average at their Discovery Kids Program and that the Seed Library Program is going strong. They recently held a laser tag event that drew 14 kids, and they will be offering classes on gardening beginning with a session about seedlings.

Vandenbark informed the Board that he was pleased to be asked to interview with the author of the book "Pink, Blue and You," by Elise Gravel with Mykaell Blais, a book which reflects upon gender stereotypes. He was selected to share about how the library has been challenged for carrying the book about gender for kids four to eight years old. More information about the interview will be in the next library newsletter, Vandenbark said.

Vandenbark has completed two years as the director and will be evaluated next month. Board member Michele Smith's term expires at the end of March and the County Commissioners will be interviewing interested candidates, including Smith, who is reapplying.

Prior to hearing the appeal, the agenda included a presentation by Dr. Meredith from the Jefferson County Library, to give training to the Board on the importance of intellectual freedom. Public comments were heard by the Board on the matter.

Meredith provided a lengthy training presentation about intellectual freedom that lasted half of the over two-hour meeting. She spoke about the different aspects of the right to receive information and said that any limits placed is a form of censorship which is the suppression of ideas and information that some may find objectionable. She also spoke about how libraries are changing from being a place of neutrality on topics where they may be focused on community standards to one that also presents topics that reflect other ways of life and points of view. She said libraries are a limited/designated forum where "we cannot exclude patrons or information based on content or ideas."

She explained libraries can avoid participating in censorship by keeping books in the section for the intended audience for which they were written, by not including a book in the collection for fear of offending patrons and weeding controversial books out without replacing them with a title of a similar subject.

Most censorship comes at the request of the patron, and she provided examples including "grumpy people with too much time on their hands, parents of children ages 4-6 and 14-16 and conspiracy theorists." Meredith went on to state that "an ethical dilemma is a not a clash between right and wrong but between two rights."

"Looking at the obscenity portion of the First Amendment, under the Miller Test for child pornography, I'm sure you have some LGBTQ books there," asked Board member Chuck Beleny. "We have one here that shows one boy teaching another boy how to perform oral sex and then telling him to taste it to see what it tastes like. Do you consider that child pornography or obscenity."

Meredith answered that the question is for the courts to decide and that she finds it doubtful that the publishers would be found guilty.

"Rather than being seen as neutral, what our real goal here is becoming trusted...it means you are consistent with your policies, you are consistent with your services, and it means that everybody who walks through your door gets the same positive treatment," Meredith concluded.

Local library patron Marcene Hendrickson requested the review of the book, "What's the T?" and followed procedure by sending a written request to the Board to appeal the director's decision to retain the books in its location. Her appeal is required to be in context of how it conflicts with the collection development policy.

Hendrickson was allowed ten minutes to speak where she approached her request to have the book removed by quoting from the Library Board page on the website, "The Columbia County Rural Library District is dependent on the trust of its community to successfully achieve its mission." She said many in the community have lost trust in the library.

Her trust in the library began to diminish soon after it became a library district when, instead of taking only the promised 25 cents of its taxing authority, the district took the full 50 cents allowed, which limits or prohibits other taxing districts from receiving funding, including the flood control zone district.

"This year the tax is $464,496 or about 2.5 times the budget of the city library in 2006 as adjusted for inflation," Hendrickson said.

She has lost trust in the staff's choice of books and has spoken with many people who have stopped using the library because of the content issues. Hendrickson referenced Director Vandenbark's claim in his recent Letter to the Editor refuting what was printed in the previous article about the library that there are no books with sexually explicit instruction in the children's library, despite the fact that "What's the T?" was shelved there on display.

When Hendrickson approached Vandenbark about this, he said that the inaccuracy was the use of the word instruction because it was not a manual. She questioned how this response builds trust. The claim has been that the book is helpful for trans-youth, however, she suggested after reading it that there are better books available for that purpose that would not contain an instructional chapter about how to have "Sexy Fun Times."

Hendrickson asked for the removal of the book and for more open and honest conversation to restore trust and bring light back into the library.

Vice-Chair Karin Spann [acknowledged] Vandenbark for his diligent work in reviewing the book in question. Chairman Jay Ball moved to reject the appeal with a second by Michele Smith. Prior to the vote of the remaining board members, Vandenbark attempted to clarify that the downstairs library is the lower-level library and not just the children's library as it is commonly known, even though it houses only books for minors of all ages.

All but Beleny voted to deny the appeal, each citing that the book meets policy. Board member Sharon Mendel and Spann added that they do not wish to limit the book for others though not everybody may want to read it. Spann said she works with students at the school and sees the need for the book. Beleny exhorted the Board that the policy needs to be revised.

About a dozen public comments were heard. All but one of them were in opposition to the content of the books for kids. The commenter expressed her appreciation for the presentation, and for the work they are doing.

Sharon and John Richter each made comment. Sharon said the book that was appealed does not have to be in the library. Much larger libraries do not have the book on their shelves, and she questioned why the Dayton Library has it in its collection. John said he has lived in Dayton most of his life and believes that society is making gray some things that are black and white, trying to make wrong things right.

Jeri Fulbright pointed out that just a couple years ago there used to be as many as twenty kids at story time and the library needs to rebuild trust with the community because it is negatively affecting patronage.

Zella Powers and Peggy James both suggested that the placement of the books is something that could be addressed to safeguard the kids.

Another attendee spoke from her many years of experience as a counselor and stated that "Never in those 30 years, did anyone say that sexuality that had been presented at too young of an age, a vulnerable time in their life, benefited them."

Sylvia Pitcher presented a painting of a light shining on a book that represents "the light that Mrs. Day, the founder of the library, intended this library to be in this community–a place to bring the community together in unity and not strife."

Pastor James Ash of the Dayton Adventist Church questioned being biased and who gets to choose. "Protections for minors are "because they don't have the capacity to choose well and make good decisions and so legally, we put certain safeguards in place," Ash said. "When it comes to the mind, are we saying that anything goes? What I heard her [Meredith] say is that it is not really our position to say anything, it's for the courts. Trust me, the court system is not going to be the conscience of a society. I'm a pilot, ok? When pilots don't fly airplanes, bad things happen. I'm wondering here, who's flying? If the librarian says, it's not me–my job is just [to go with] anything that comes across, then it naturally makes it in [the library]. I'm asking what is the procedure? Who makes these decisions?"

Port Commissioner Johnny Watts commented about Meredith's presentation, in that he disagrees with the presenter in that he believes there is right and wrong "because when you make everything where there is no right or wrong, you don't stand for anything."

"I don't see that see that we're heading in a more positive direction these days than we were before, but we have way more freedom than we ever had in certain instances and not enough freedom in others," Watts said.

Joann Patras spoke for the youth and their excitement to come to the library only to open a book and find content that cannot be unseen or unlearned. "Children seeing that makes an imprint. That is not intellectual freedom at all," Patras said. "It's gross."