I didn't leave my room for days, and I cried so much that my eyes swelled shut. "I was hyperventilating," Jones says through tears. Another pictured Jones with a red and white circle around her face. "We're going to put ur fat evil commie PEDO azz in the dirt very soon b****" read one. She was accused of "advocating teaching anal sex to 11-year-olds," and pushing "sexually erotic and pornographic materials," to children "as young as six." That prompted a barrage of insults and threats as relentless as they were vicious. Then, she says, her comments were twisted online. Jones said that would effectively be a book ban. "Just because you don't want to read it or see it and does not give you the right to deny others," she said that night.Ībdul Aziz for NPR Librarian Amanda Jones speaks out at a Livingston Parish Library Board of Control meeting on July 18, 2023, against a policy that would automatically remove challenged books from library shelves until a review is completed, even if that takes months or more. Removing or relocating those books, she said, would be "extremely harmful to our most vulnerable - our children." Jones says it started after she spoke out at a library board meeting against censorship and "book policing." Without mentioning any specific book, Jones said that challenges "often done with the best intentions," tend to target the Black and LGBTQ communities. "I had an actual death threat," says Livingston Parish school librarian Amanda Jones, her voice breaking as she recalls one particular post: "We know where you work + live.u have a LARGE target on ur back. They're being shouted down by parents, vilified on billboards, reported to the police, and trolled online, leaving many fearing for their safety.
No longer are just books under fire, but also the library administrators, teachers and long-beloved librarians who are defending them. It's something of a "new normal" here - as it is around the nation. "So I'm going to talk about what I'm going to talk about."
The activist snapped back that he never actually used the word "groomer," but made clear that he sees her as fair game. "Look, just stop posting about me on Facebook," she demanded. Tensions spilled over after the meeting when one board member confronted a conservative activist and implored him to stop insinuating online that she was a groomer.Ībdul Aziz for NPR A sign on a door at the Denham Springs-Walker Branch library in Livingston Parish announces the elimination of Sunday hours due to staff shortages. "Just leave it on the shelf," shouted one. Others shot back that it was hardly the same thing, and vehemently objected to a policy they say would effectively empower one person to ban a book from the entire community. Meetings have been laced with insults, interruptions and the kind of profanity that would probably get you kicked out of the library.Īt the most recent meeting in July, it wasn't quite as heated as the 100° temperatures outside, but tempers flared over plans to immediately remove challenged books under review from library shelves- even if that takes months, or more.īoard member Larry Davis likened it to removing a teacher accused of sexual harassment until an investigation is complete. It's been a year since the start of what one librarian here calls "The Troubles." That's when once-boring meetings of the Livingston Parish Library Board of Control started devolving into bitter brawls over books that some consider to be too sexual and harmful to kids.
Be advised that this story contains references to sex acts involving children, and suicide.
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