“We’re seeing rising assaults on librarians and libraries, starting from character assassination and the usage of social media to incite and intimidate, all the way in which to bomb threats,” mentioned Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Affiliation’s Workplace of Mental Freedom.
A handful of librarians, like Jones, went to court docket to clear their names.
In 2023, New Jersey highschool librarian Roxanne Caivano introduced defamation case towards a bunch of oldsters who had scorned her on-line and at a faculty board assembly, in some circumstances calling her a pornographer and youngster predator, as a result of she saved the graphic memoir “Gender queer.” Caivano, who’s represented within the case by her husband, advocated protecting the e book on the cabinets.
Within the fall, the previous director of the Campbell County Public Library in Wyoming, who was fired after refusing to take away controversial books from the kids’s and teenage part of the Gillette, Wyo., library, filed a lawsuit federal lawsuit for defamation and violation of her civil rights. Librarian Terri Leslie filed a lawsuit towards three neighborhood members who accused her of offering obscene materials to kids and reported her to the county sheriff in an try to have her arrested.
And earlier this 12 months, Suzette Baker, a former librarian in Llano County, Texas, filed a lawsuit towards library and county officers, arguing that her First and 14th Modification rights have been violated when she was fired after refusing to take away the disputed books. All three librarian affairs proceed; Baker and Leslie, who’re each represented by Denver-based civil rights legal professional Iris Halpern, allege they have been discriminated towards and retaliated towards for defending books that take care of racial or LGBT points.
Jones, 46, a lifelong resident of Watson, a small city close to Baton Rouge, grew up in a politically conservative Southern Baptist household, the daughter of a mechanic and a kindergarten and Sunday college trainer. She met her husband, additionally a Watson native, once they have been in first grade. She has been a trainer and librarian at Watson for 23 years, working on the similar college she attended as a lady.
