Librarians turn to civil rights agency to oppose book bans and their firings

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – She refused to ban books, lots of them about racism and the stories of LGBTQ+ folks. And for that, Suzette Baker was once fired as a library director in a rural county in central Texas.

“I’m kind of persona non grata around here,” mentioned Baker, who had headed the Kingsland, Texas, library device till she refused to take down a distinguished show of a number of books folks had sought to ban through the years.

Now, Baker is preventing again. She and two different librarians who had been in a similar fashion fired have filed place of job discrimination claims with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And as tradition warfare battles to stay positive books from youngsters and teenagers put public and faculty libraries an increasing number of under pressure, their purpose is redemption and, the place imaginable, eventual reinstatement.

So a long way, it is a wait-and-see whether or not the claims will be successful — and set new precedent — within the combat between academics and librarians across the nation who oppose book bans and conservative activists who say some books are irrelevant for younger minds.

The combat has concerned a record number of book-banning efforts; some libraries reducing ties with the American Library Association, which opposes book bans; and even attempts to prosecute librarians for permitting youngsters to get admission to books some believe too graphic.

At least one terminated librarian has won a measure of good fortune.

Brooky Parks, who was once fired for status up for methods on anti-racism and LGBTQ+ tales she arranged for youths on the Erie Community Library north of Denver, gained a $250,000 agreement in September. Reached in the course of the Colorado Civil Rights Division, the agreement calls for her former employer to give librarians extra say in selections involving library methods.

Parks’ agreement with the High Plains Library District capped a disturbing eight-month length with out paintings, when group donations helped her keep away from dropping her house. And it is going to most probably get to the bottom of Parks’ declare with the EEOC, mentioned her lawyer, Iris Halper, who represents the 3 librarians.

“I just wasn’t going to back down from it. It was just the right thing to do,” mentioned Parks, now a librarian on the University of Denver.

After her firing in 2022, Baker filed an EEOC declare towards her employer, the Llano County Library System in Kingsland, Texas. And in September 2023, Terri Lesley, government director of the Campbell County Public Library System in Gillette, Wyoming, filed a declare over her firing ultimate summer season.

Halpern, with the Denver company Rathod Mohamedbhai, in comparison the wrongful termination claims to civil rights technology criminal battles.

“It is honestly sad that we’ve gotten to this point. But history is a constant struggle and we have to learn from our past,” she mentioned.

The 1964 Civil Right Act established the EEOC to implement rules towards place of job discrimination. One criminal professional thinks the librarians may well be ready to succeed at the grounds that, underneath the ones rules, workers might not be discriminated towards for associating with positive categories of folks.

“With any case, the devil can be in the details in terms of how the facts come out and what they can present. But these are definitely actionable claims,” mentioned Rutgers University regulation professor David Lopez, a former EEOC common suggest.

An EEOC investigation can take over a yr. After that, the EEOC would possibly try to achieve a agreement with the employer out of courtroom, sue at the worker’s behalf or factor a letter announcing the worker has grounds to sue on their personal.

The librarians have not but won an EEOC reaction and none is predicted earlier than the top of subsequent yr.

“I would love to be optimistic,” Baker mentioned. “I know there are a lot of people in this community who are just absolutely behind the library being open and free and equal for all. And there’s a lot of people who aren’t. So it’s a hard, hard situation.”

EEOC spokesperson Victor Chen declined to comment on specific filings, adding “we can’t even confirm or deny we have these complaints.”

The county attorney offices and other representatives of the government officials who fired Parks, Baker and Lesley did not return phone and email messages seeking comment, or declined to comment.

At her Texas library, Baker displayed several books that have been targeted in recent book bans and a sign that read: “We put the ‘lit’ in literature” — a reference to a Tennessee pastor’s recent burning of books.

Baker was fired after refusing to take down the display and signs — the last straw after she resisted book banning in her own library.

In March, a federal judge ordered 17 books returned to Kingsland library shelves while a citizen lawsuit against book banning proceeded. The works ranged from children’s books to award-winning nonfiction, including “They Called Themselves the K.K.K: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group,” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti; and “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health,” by Robie Harris.

“Content-based restrictions on speech are presumptively unconstitutional and subject to strict scrutiny,” Texas U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman wrote in his March 30 ruling. He cited a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that barred communities from banning signs because of what they say.

The Llano County Commission considered but decided against closing the county’s three libraries in response to the ruling. Closing the libraries would have been eerily similar to the history across the U.S. of closing swimming pools rather than desegregating them, Halpern said.

Like Baker, Lesley had trouble finding work after being fired from the library system she directed in Gillette, Wyoming. Her dismissal followed two years of turmoil over challenges to the books available and library programs.

Some of the same county officials who opposed a transgender magician’s plans to perform at the library went on to join local residents in seeking to ban books, according to Lesley’s EEOC filing.

Baker and Lesley both were fired after local officials appointed new library board members willing to be more aggressive about pulling books.

“Our county commissioners appointed board members who were sympathetic to the people who wanted to remove the books. And it was a long dance to try to get it there. And in the end they had to fire me, I think, in order to be able to meet their goal,” Lesley said.

The Campbell County Commission skirted a deputy county attorney’s recommendation not to appoint past applicants for the board without re-interviewing them along with new candidates, according to Lesley’s EEOC claim.

“I saw this as a well-executed attack on the library by a group of citizens and elected officials. It was an attack on the LGBTQ+ community as well,” she mentioned. “And it was an attack on the books.”