It's About Local Control

By Gretchen Garrity 

 

“So Chicago wants to retain control of Nixa.” -- Dan Kleinman

 

Sign their petition - https://t.co/3qdC6c3Aae https://t.co/g2LZq0H95b

— EveryLibrary (@EveryLibrary) August 29, 2024

The Christian County Library Board of Trustees has made a first move to restore trust and repair relations with the public. After nearly two years of refusal to engage the issue of sexually explicit and vulgar books being placed in the children and teen sections of the library, the board has voted to replace President Allyson Tuckness and to expand citizens’ ability to publicly comment.

You can see the motion, discussion and vote here beginning at the 50:40 minute mark:

 The board action to replace Tuckness caused an immediate reaction from not only opponents in the audience, but with a local progressive group, U-Turn in Education, and national groups like Every Library, a group associated with the American Library Association (which is based in Chicago), as well as the organization Book Riot.

 

This is the nightmare that was unleashed last evening. We are actively working today onward to develop a plan to address this insanity in a productive and meaningful way. https://t.co/fLXxGNRNvC

— UTurninEducation (@UTurninEdu) August 28, 2024

A reporter was also present at the library, Susan Wade, who wrote a story for the Springfield Daily Citizen HERE. The board did NOT vote “to implement a system of placing stickers on books...” as the article states. 

The board voted to have Executive Director Renee Brumett provide a list of LGBTQ+ subject headings from the Library of Congress catalog system, and potential book spine labels used by library vendors. The approved motion also requested that books already challenged be included with subject headings on the list Brumett will provide.

The board is researching the feasibility of a labeling system, it has not implemented one. Though the library does currently already use ratings for patron awareness of subject matters including genres and categorizations, this would not be a net new system change for them. More detail below.

LOCAL CONTROL IS THE KEY

There is a small but vocal and active group of locals who have opposed any changes within the county library system. They are composed of mostly progressives who are invested in a political ideology that is contrary to Christian County’s community values. Some of them have connections with larger organizations whose ultimate goal is to overturn the existing cultural and political order.

 

Reaction from: Book Riot

Here is how they work. The large and well-funded national organizations find and fund small local groups, who are activated when their political and social hegemony in schools and libraries are threatened. These small groups (like U-Turn in Education, headed by local professor and activist Elizabeth Dudash-Buskirk) call on the larger organizations for help when needed. Name-calling commences. The press is activated. Petitions are drawn up. Lies are spread. Lawsuits are commenced. 

It's how they operate. But once you see it, you can't unsee it. This is exactly what happened almost immediately after the August 27, 2024 board of trustee meeting.

Here is the petition from Fight For the First.

Here are the lies: "Not only were the actions on August 7th in violation of the bylaws, the illegal move also irresponsibly leaves the library without proper signing authorities on the bank account."

EXAMINING THE BY-LAWS

Did the board of trustees violate their by-laws by voting in a new slate of officers? The by-laws state that board officers are elected in December. But there is nothing to exclude electing officers at other times of the year, as appropriate. Hence, at the July 2023 board of trustee meeting, a president, vice-president, and treasurer were all elected. In December of 2023, when the regular election happened, the same slate was merely re-affirmed.

Since board appointments happen in July, there is often an officer shuffle. So, elections happen at other times of the year as needed and appropriate. No one seemed concerned about check signing when a new board member was appointed last July as treasurer.

 At the end of the Tuesday slate election on August 27, the executive director was (~ minute 56:40) asked to confirm if there would be a negative impact on the ability to have checks promptly signed as was implied (~ minute 51:15).  She was not immediately aware of any concerns but would research to be sure. 

The following Friday, August 30, the check signing process continued as normal (weekly signing had been occurring weekly on that day) without interruption. So instead of a question being asked of whether there might be an impact to financial operations to ensure they were not disrupted, false statements were made and have been found to be untrue.

MORE ON THE STICKERS

Horrors: A sticker

At the board meeting, one individual, Amy Hoogstraet, professed horror at the thought of labeling books with identifying stickers. You can see her speak during the public comment of the meeting video above.

This is an interesting angle, since the library itself advertises LGBTQ+ books with stickers as demonstrated below, and other identifying information. In fact, the library proudly displays books with such themes.

Another sticker

 Libraries have often identified Christian-themed books with dove stickers. There were stickers that identified mystery books, too. And books that have been honored by one organization or another. This is not new, and it is not discriminatory.

Pronoun buttons to wear seen at the CCL

 The issue is not stickers. The issue is the push to impose an agenda on children beginning as young as 0-2 years of age. The library has hundreds of books with age-inappropriate themes of sexuality, gender ideology, Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion indoctrination, and so on.

Hyped up reaction

This indoctrination is harming children, whose parents often have no idea of what is happening in their schools or what books are being laced into the libraries. Even large book publishers are getting in the local fight because it affects their bottom line. Without a pipeline from publisher to schools and libraries, it is likely many of these books would not be published and pushed on children.

Using arguments like "book banning," privacy rights, access, uncertain case law, and "free speech" these activists work in concert with local libraries and others to keep control over the content of library collections. And they are bent on selling an agenda that most people do not want their children exposed to before they are emotionally and physically capable of handling such content.

As an aside, many libraries are engaged in weeding out classic books that build character, have immense literary quality, and reinforce timeless values. You can count on one hand the number of complete Christian Scriptures in the Christian County Library's four branches. This is not a mistake.

The threat of lawsuits begins

 As the furor grows regarding the audacity of a board to reassert local control of its library, it is helpful to take with a grain of salt what activists, the media and national organizations are saying about the situation. Come to the library meetings and see for yourself what is actually happening. You might be surprised to see it is quite different than its portrayal by progressive activists.

Meetings happen on the fourth Tuesday of each month, but note November and December meeting dates are different, so always check the website here to confirm. Next month's meeting is September 24, 2024, at 6 p.m. in Nixa.

Note: In the interests of full disclosure, I am related to John Garrity, the newest board member of the library board of trustees.