Child protection or censorship?
November 9th, 2009Kentucky.com – “Sharon Cook is either a hero or a villain. She is either due your thanks for doing everything in her power to protect children from obscenity or she is due your disdain for wantonly taking away the constitutional rights of the people of Jessamine County. She never meant to do the latter. She absolutely meant to do the former.”
Posted in Censorship | | Top Of Page
November 9th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
That is an excellent article. I blogged on this issue too.
From the article you linked, I love this part about the library’s support for freedom of speech:
They wanted to then suggest that the library change its policy on censorship.
Boisvert said she wanted them to know that “because we are a conservative community, we will choose to have our children protected.”
Cook and Boisvert were never given the opportunity to speak. Neither was anyone else in the gallery. The reason given: It was not on the agenda.
People left really, really riled.
Director Critchfield has repeatedly said the library will not comment on personnel matters. The library, instead, has been left to try to speak through its policies.
November 11th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
What I find disturbing is that Cook “used her employee privileges to find out that the patron desiring the book was an 11-year-old girl.” That is clearly an abuse of her employee privileges, a huge step beyond her role as librarian, and an invasion of the privacy of the library patron.