Letter to the Editor Supports Sexually Harassed Librarians

Here's a published letter to the editor supporting sexually harassed librarians, "Neither patrons nor library employees should be forced to suffer with sexual activity of any kind in the OPPL," and urging new library trustees to take action to protect them from further harassment:

3 Steps to Fixing the OPPL

Dear Editor,

There are three simple steps that the Orland Park Public Library Board of Trustees can take to make the library a safer place for children and families and fix the problems I have observed in this library in recent years.

First, the OPPL needs to install filters on its adult computers to block child pornography and other illegal content from being accessed and to prevent men from arousing themselves sexually in the adult computer area.  Neither patrons nor library employees should be forced to suffer with sexual activity of any kind in the OPPL.

Libraries such as those in Niles and Lemont have successfully eliminated this problem by blocking such sites on public computers.

A library is a taxpayer-funded facility for education and learning, and not a place for sexual activity of any kind.

Second, the OPPL should turn back to its mission statement and eliminate its outrageous food and jewelry purchases for staff.  Nowhere in the library's charter or mission statement does it state that the OPPL should be using taxpayer money to buy expensive treats or gifts for employees.  Yet, the OPPL maintains active purchasing accounts at the Orland Park Bakery and Noral Diamond Jewelers that provide no public benefit and should be immediately closed.  It is inexcusable to squander public money on expensive pastries and jewelry store purchases for highly-paid OPPL staffers who can afford to buy their own paczki and crystal bookends.

Third, the library's trustees need to come clean with the public about why police were not called when their own internal incident report shows that three witnesses reported to library staff that child porn was accessed in the OPPL.  The board has admitted that Library Director Mary Weimar did not call the police as she was required to do by their own policy.  This is especially troubling, because it appears that Weimar received no disciplinary action for this poor judgment and, in fact, was awarded raises that have brought her compensation package to $189,000 per year.  The woman who did not call the police when child porn was accessed in the OPPL is, thus, paid more than Orland Police Chief Tim McCarthy.

I have a problem with that and believe management and other personnel changes are needed to remedy ongoing safety and spending problems in the OPPL.  I urge the two new incoming trustees to take the three steps outlined above as soon as possible.

Megan Fox

Source:  "Letters to the Editor April 2, 2015," by Editor, Orland Park Prairie, 2 April 2015.  Republished with permission of Story Time Digital Media.

URL of this page:

librarians.cc/2015/04/letter.html

Constructive Discharge of Librarians

Sometimes librarians are sexually harassed in the public library where they work. This can be due to patrons viewing Internet pornography.  Some libraries allow porn viewing despite the law as a direct result of American Library Association [ALA] pro child porn training/policy applied locally.  When librarians complain to their managers about such harassment, they are sometimes told don't let the door hit you on the way out.  You see, to stop the harassment, the library would have to filter the Internet and jettison the ALA's anything-goes policy.  For some, ALA rules are too precious to toss aside just because, as they might see it, some prudish librarian alleges she's being sexually harassed when, as ALA teaches, no librarian has ever been sexually harassed nor ever will be (link).

It may be "constructive discharge (link)" to tell a librarian/library employee to go take a hike when he/she complains about being sexually harassed by porn viewers, depending on the circumstances and the extent of a hostile work environment (link).

Librarians who quit may not even realize they've been essentially fired.  Constructive discharge (a kind of wrongful termination) makes libraries and municipalities (that take no action to stop libraries from acting outside the law) subject to liability.

Here are possible/potential examples of constructive discharge or constructive dismissal by librarians and library employees working in public libraries following ALA diktat to allow unfiltered porn where management told them to go take a hike:

Orland Park Public Library employee Linda Zec said (link):

I also finally speak out because after conversations that I had while I was employed at the OPPL with my director and assistant director, I was told that I could quit if I did not like their policy, with no hard feelings.  ....  I ... was being told I could like it or lump it.  ....  I was told by Director Weimar that porn was protected under freedom of speech.  ....  I was basically told ... to leave it alone.  I took her stern warnings as, "You cause trouble, you lose your job," which I really did not want to do because I really enjoyed being part of the library family.  I just did not like the pervs [air quotes] that came in and made me feel uncomfortable.  However, my husband did want me to quit.  So eventually, after enough complaining, I did so.

Birmingham Public Library librarian Barbara Ann Wilson was told, "If you don't like it leave" (link).  The graphic at top right illustrates this statement.

A dozen librarians in Adamson v. Minneapolis Public Library (link) revealed:

24.  In 1997, Lawson was advised by Plaintiff Nancy Corcoran that staff members were being regularly exposed to obscene and sexually explicit materials at their work place and throughout MPL.  Lawson responded by memo rejecting any responsibility on the part of the library to monitor or restrict access on the Internet.  Lawson went further to formulate and implement a policy under which MPL would allow complete and unfettered access to the Internet by any patron.  Lawson and MPL took the position that the only relevant concern was the First Amendment rights of the viewers of obscene and pornographic materials, and that it would not be permissible for MPL employees to take any action that would interfere with patron access to these materials.

There are other cases, I just think three examples is enough.

I'm hoping writing my opinions/observations here will help librarians obtain justice, deter library management from practicing constructive discharge, and wake up local communities and governments to the possibly of serious liability costs if they allow libraries to continue to serve porn and child porn despite the law.

Sexual harassment of librarians must stop, even if it means tossing aside ALA diktat and installing Internet filters as part of an effective solution to stop Internet porn viewing (link).

It's the right thing to do, the latest case being from just yesterday:

• "Niles Library Trustees Approve Internet Filtering Contract, Amend Filtering Guidelines; Filters for Pornography, Nudism Expected to be Installed Within a Month," by Tom Robb, Journal & Topic Newpapers (Des Plaines, IL), 22 January 2015.

URL of this page:

librarians.cc/2015/01/constructive-discharge-of-librarians.html