Public vents about book content

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The board of trustees of the Glen Ridge Public Library decided at its public meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 8, to reject all appeals by a group of borough residents who sought to remove or limit access to six books they considered inappropriate for children. A seventh library book, whose content was questioned by one member of this group, Citizens Defending Education, was not addressed at the meeting, but was subsequently judged by GRPL Director Tina Marie Doody as meeting the library’s material selection criteria, as had been the original six books.

Limiting access to books in a public library, or removing them, is a hot topic, especially when they touch on sex or sexual orientation, as these books did. Consequently, the trustee meeting was relocated to the Ridgewood Avenue School auditorium, which seats 800 people. On the night of the meeting, there were an estimated 800 people in attendance, including those standing. Similar crowds attended multiple New York City media outlets.

The identifiable opposition to the CDE’s objections wore orange T-shirts reading, “Glen Ridge United Against Book Bans.” There were an estimated 150 similar T-shirts in the auditorium, but some people, with or without them, when questioned by this newspaper, were unfamiliar with the books. During public comments, an individual identifying himself as Phil Johnson said he was the organizer of the opposition. The CDE was initially composed of eight people.

GRPL trustee President Carol Harpster said the process to the appeals began on Monday, Oct. 24, when the library received its standard form of re-evaluation for six books. The appropriateness of the books was questioned and it was requested they either be removed or, in some cases, be provided with the “guard rail” of parental permission to access, because they did not conform to the library’s selection policy. On Monday, Nov. 7, Doody informed the CDE that they did conform to policy. The CDE formally requested appeals on Thursday, Jan. 12.

At the trustee meeting, although Harpster asked the audience not to applaud speakers, in order to save time, there was applause.
Three objections were made to the CDE’s requests: first, speakers said only parents had the right to determine what their child could read; second, speakers said LGBTQ individuals who felt represented by these books would be further marginalized without them; and third, it was better for children to learn about sensitive topics from a library book than the internet.

The CDE’s re-evaluation requests began when a woman told a CDE member, Fran Deacon, that “Here and Queer” and “You Know, Sex,” two of the six books, were displayed on a GRPL table. According to Deacon, who spoke at her home to The Glen Ridge Paper, the woman was with two children at the time of her discovery and was surprised.
“We didn’t do anything until she came to us,” Deacon said of the CDE. “We were more concerned with what would change the school curriculum.”

Deacon did not think questioning the six books was an LGBTQ issue. Nonetheless, she has received hate mail via the group’s website and has installed a monitoring device on her property for security.
“The story being told is not true,” she said. “The story being told is that we’re book banners, that we’re trying to remove the representation of our LGBTQ neighbors. That’s what people want to believe. The truth is we are engaged in a process the library affords all residents in Glen Ridge, to bring to the attention of the director and board of trustees library materials that a resident is concerned about.”

Deacon said that at the Borough Council meeting on Monday, Jan. 23, during public comments, Johnson said a public relations effort would begin the following day against what he characterized as a book banning.

“On the 24th, everything started raining hellfire on all of us,” Deacon said. “What was supposed to be civil and safe became uncivil and unsafe.”
At no time, Deacon said, did the CDE engage outsiders or any media outlet. And no CDE member attended the trustee meeting out of fear for their safety.

“We thought we were operating in a safe context,” she said.
The seventh book, “Let’s Talk About It,” was one that only Deacon requested a re-evaluation. She found some of its cartoon graphics obscene and its content unsafe, especially its discourse on sexting.
Deacon also objected to the book’s advice on watching pornography. She asked the library to remove the book or control how it can be seen. Pornography, she told this newspaper, is an industry of victimization.

Although the request for “Let’s Talk About It” can be appealed, after her experience, Deacon was unwilling to do so.
“Everyone in Glen Ridge knows, better think hard before you submit a request like (that) again.”