[Libs-Or] Fwd: [alacoun] Todaro comment... Library worker arrested in library after defending patron's free speech

[Diedre Conkling]

ALA staff are gathering information according to Julie Todaro, ALA
President.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Julie Todaro <jtodaro at austincc.edu>
Date: Thu, Sep 29, 2016 at 9:28 AM
Subject: [alacoun] Todaro comment... Library worker arrested in library
after defending patron's free speech



We are gathering information on this and will get back to Council. I can
only speak for myself..but I had not heard of this until yesterday.

Julie

On Sep 29, 2016 10:29 AM, "Lauren Comito" <librariancrafter at gmail.com>
wrote:

That this happened at all is difficult to wrap my head around, but I have a
few questions.

1 - Why was this not more widely known in the community in May when it
happened?
2 - Is Mr. Woolfolk OK, and does he need anything from the wider community?
2 - Now that we are aware, what are we going to do/say about it? This is a
blatant violation of our core principles as librarians and I hope to see
ALA address this issue.

Lauren Comito
Councilor at Large

On Thu, Sep 29, 2016 at 10:27 AM, Aaron W. Dobbs <aaron at thelibrarian.org>
wrote:

> Library Worker Heroically Defends Patron’s Free Speech, Is Brutally
> Arrested in Library Where He Works
> http://bordc.org/news/library-worker-heroically-defends-patr
> ons-free-speech-brutally-arrested-library-works/
>
> “For someone to be assaulted and then arrested for asking a question, in a
> public library of all places, is abhorrent. The library should be a place
> where people of all points of view can feel safe and welcome,” Steve
> Woolfolk, director of public programing at the Kansas City Public Library
> told the Dissent NewsWire.
> ...
> “I have spent the last 10 years of my life trying to cultivate that
> atmosphere through public programming at the library. Library staff should
> be the final arbiters of what constitutes reasonable discourse at a public
> event held inside a public library,” Woolfolk explained to the Dissent
> NewsWire. Yet, when he tried to intervene on the questioner’s behalf,
> Woolfolk found himself arrested at an event he helped plan.
> ...
> Woolfolk stands charged with interfering with the arrest of Rothe-Kushel.
> Rothe-Kushel, like Woolfolk feared, was charged with trespassing and
> resisting arrest. “Nobody, be it an individual or an agent of the state,
> should be able to take it upon themselves to silence a point of view simply
> because they disagree,” Woolfolk informed the Dissent NewsWire. Yet, it
> would appear that not only is that exactly what happened, but a librarian
> who tried to make sure that a public library remained a public forum was
> arrested, as well.
>



-- 
Lauren Comito
librariancrafter at gmail.com





-- 
*Diedre Conkling*




*Lincoln County Library DistrictP.O. Box 2027Newport, OR 97365Phone & Fax:
541-265-3066Work email**: **diedre at lincolncolibrarydist.org*
<diedre at lincolncolibrarydist.org>
*Home email: **diedre08 at gmail.com* <diedre08 at gmail.com>

“If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change
your attitude.”―Maya Angelou
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/libs-or/attachments/20160929/a5255991/attachment.html>