The Right to Read Prevails

Thanks to Executive Committee member Brooklynn White for this write-up following the latest Library Board meeting on July 9th. This is an editorial piece and does not reflect the views or opinions of the Sumner County Democratic Party. Ready to get involved to keep the momentum going? Read to the end to find out more about other library board actions and their hiring efforts for open library director positions.

We did it! For those who have been following the story of the Sumner County Library Board and their chairwomen’s attempt to censor books with her bigoted agenda, you will know that dozens of Sumner County residents and advocates have been showing up and working very hard to remind the Sumner County Library Board that censorship and transphobia have no place in our libraries. On July 9th, months of work culminated in the new collections policy failing at the vote. This means decisions about library content will stay in the hands of our library directors who know our library best, and language requiring diverse viewpoints will stay in our collections policy. Sumner County libraries can continue to look to the American Library Association as a tool. The policy failing to pass means that books with transgender or “gender confusing” topics will continue to have their rightful place on library shelves. Our neighbors and community members will continue to see themselves represented within vibrant spaces in our communities- libraries.

So now that we know what this policy failing to be adopted means for us, let’s talk about the lead up from the May meeting. In May the Sumner County Library Board met, and one of their items of business included voting on a proposed collections policy. This policy had been brought forth previously, but that meeting was canceled. In May members of the public showed up to oppose the policy as it was written. Joanna Daniels, the Chair of the board, brought her own edits that had not been made visible to the public and the board had not received these changes until they began discussing the policy. Despite Sumner County Library Board bylaws requiring all proposed changes to be received by the full board no less than 21 days before a vote, and despite Parliamentary Procedure requiring amendments made after a policy leaves committee to be voted on by the board and adopted by the board as the new policy being considered, Joanna handed her own new amendments to the board and demanded that they vote on the policy as she had altered it. In a previous follow-up I go into more detail about this ordeal, but the important part to remember is that the board voted to table the collections policy and send it back to the Bylaws and Policy subcommittee to rework the language and then bring it back for a vote in July. It is also important that you know that the changes Joanna brought were far more stringent than the already unconstitutional collections policy that had been made available to the public. These alterations changed the section regarding transgender and gender confusing topics from being about removing these topics from youth sections of the library to outright banning them from our libraries all together.

In the weeks after the May meeting, concerned community members began reaching out to the Library Board to find out when the Policy and Bylaws committee would be meeting. Since the board bylaws say that changes to the bylaws must be received by all member of the board at least 21 days prior to a vote, and with this being a new collections policy put forth by the board, it appeared this committee meeting would need to take place very quickly. At the May meeting Paul McCoy asked to be added to the Policy and Bylaws committee so that he might be able to take part in the rework of the collections policy. I emailed Paul June 25th asking if the committee had met and if there was a new draft of the policy. On June 26th he replied to let me know that to his knowledge the committee had not yet met.

On July 3rd, just 6 days before the full board meeting and vote on the collections policy, the Bylaws and Policy Committee met. Myself and several other community members attended to voice our opposition to the policy and Joanna’s changes. Despite Paul’s request to be on the committee, only 3 people are on it: Joanna Daniels, Erika Grammar, and Mike Bryan. Joanna is the Chair and author of the policy, Mike is the Vice Chair, and Erika votes with them both. There were no opposing viewpoints on this board. Erika Grammar had another commitment so there was a time constraint on the meeting. Several other items came first including discussing a policy for author book signings and renewing the required computer use policy. The board tabled writing a mission statement, a move that has been done several times in the last few months in favor of time. Essentially, attempting to ban books in our library, or “curate a collection” as Joanna so adamantly calls it, has become our Sumner County Library Board Policy and Bylaws Committee’s priority, rather than something more library board focused such as setting the mission of our libraries. Joanna ensured all other possible topics were discussed first before the collections policy. Minutes before the meeting needed to end so that Erika could make an appointment, Joanna began discussion on the collections policy. She spent a lot of time trying to justify the changes and shared that she was changing the wording about what needed to be included in the collection because it was “wordy”. “Unalienable rights” was part of these section she found to be wordy. It seems to be lost on Joanna that words have meaning and power and sometimes there is a reason why very specific words and phrases are used, an understanding I would hope the chair of the Library Board would understand, but alas we are here.

When describing this policy meeting to others I wrote, “[Joanna] is basically filibustering. She is purposefully wasting all her time talking about the stuff that has no real consequential change to make us look like we are just complaining and then she is going to run out of time before she has to talk about the transgender component… They passed it through committee with Joanna’s changes. Erika and Joanna are concerned not only about kids but about anyone at all having access to information about transness. They basically feel it is an equivalent to an illness that should not be encouraged. Language as it stands bans not only children but also anyone 18 or older from obtaining content that has anything to do with transgender or gender confusion including within the characters’ identity itself.” Joanna also made claims about her belief that the board’s oversight extends to school libraries and she attempted to sell Erika and Mike on the policy by telling them it was not a first amendment violation and that another library board has a more strict policy they just passed- that board is being sued by the ACLU.

Leaving the Bylaws and Policy subcommittee meeting, many of us were not feeling very hopeful. We went into the July 9th meeting with the belief that regardless of the outcome we would continue fighting, and that even if our voices were falling on deaf ears with the board, we would still be speaking up for what is right in hopes that justice will prevail and our neighbors would hear that some of us are fighting for them. To be completely honest, the meeting feels like a blur. By this point you know the final outcome was a success, but I think it speaks volumes that the onslaught of these bigoted agendas are attempting to exhaust us and test our ability to push back so much that while the victories are palpable and feel so empowering, the fight to get there becomes such an exhausting mess that the details fade. What I can tell you was that the meeting was weird and dysfunctional for more reasons than the collections policy. 16 people spoke during the public comment section. Kort Nygaard, a clinical psychologist, spoke clarifying what the literature says on the topic of transgender/ gender dysphoria- it is not anti-affirming in nature. Parents spoke about the impact of this policy including the nudity components putting books about nursing at risk. Reminders of the history of book banning and its connection to Fascism were mentioned. The risk to materials that address sexual abuse was mentioned. Concerns about banning trans identity and representation were widely voiced. 3 friends of Joanna came to speak in favor of her policy. While those of us who opposed spoke, Joanna did her usual practices of shuffling papers and dong anything else possible to avoid giving undivided attention. She was quick to cut us off as soon as the timer went off. While her friends spoke, she smiled and gave them her full attention, and she made them stop when the timer went off, but she was rather kind and let them drag their message out far longer than the rest of us would ever be allowed. In fact, when the first person went up to praise her (literally), Joanna gave a little clap for them. You can watch the public comments to hear the opposition, but I will not give them air time. There was a lot of equating transness to being predatory or harmful to children and one man compared gender dysphoria to PICA, essentially saying we shouldn’t allow people to eat rocks and we shouldn’t allow people to be gender dysphoric. These proponents of the policy were disruptive to others at the meeting. They repeatedly tried to interrogate us about religion. One women picked at Mary Jane and Kim repeatedly with all sorts of strange comments and at one point told Kim she needed to drink milk?!? Toni held a canvas that implied something about child predators and a women next to her mock snored aggressively while Tracey Campbell Parker asked Joanna questions. None of these people were ever threatened to be removed, though when Joanna started preaching and the audience voiced opposition, she threatened to clear the room.

During the discussion of the collections policy, Tracy Campbell Parker addressed several concerns about the policy with regard to its limitations on acquisitions of books and Tracy explained her first-hand experience with how library collections worked and how the specific language could directly impact our libraries. She also voiced concern about how religion is being interpreted and how the policy targets a small percentage of our community. Joanna used her position as Chair to be able to talk and she spent time arguing religion and telling Tracy she did not understand her own religion; She told Tracy that she was misquoting the bible and then went on about Sexuality being the greatest sin. Joanna also picked at people with eating disorders and suicidal ideations to questions whether books “encouraging” them should also be on library shelves and she went on a tangent about whether book on “how to murder”, terrorism, or encouraging rape should be allowed on the library shelves, all to say that books that involved transgender topics should be banned from our libraries. Joanna reminded us all that sex is not a protected class and that discrimination based on sex is allowed; this was used to justify why she felt the policy would not violate any laws including the Constitution.

Finally, a vote was held on the policy. A yes (yay) vote was in favor of adopting the collections policy. A no (nay) vote opposed the policy. The vote failed with 4 yays, 2 nays, and 2 abstentions. For context, in Parlimentary Procedure a tie counts as a fail and abstentions count towards the nays when calculating whether a vote passes. The vote totals constituted a tie, so the policy failed. Joanna initially seemed to believe the policy may have passed, next she had to be told what the votes were, and then she seem to want to count the abstentions in her favor before conceding the vote was a fail. On any other vote where the outcome will work in her favor, she is quick to call a vote as a fail because of ties and abstentions. She ridiculed the naysayers and abstentions before she would call the vote a fail, attempting to influence the outcome, but in the end, free speech, empathy, and the rights of our library directors to do their jobs prevailed and Joanna recognized the collections policy vote was a fail.

As we celebrate this important victory, the question remains, what next? It is very likely that this policy will come up again in a similar form or fashion. We need to stay vigilant and continue to show up. It is important those abstentions do not become a yes if proponents for censorship attempt to employ “Big Beautiful Bill” influence tactics. We need to revel in the small victories but we cannot get too comfortable. As soon as we look away, they will try again. Next on the list of pressing Library Board topics, the Hendersonville and Westmoreland libraries need directors. Both libraries are also short-staff and they have no hiring ability without a director. If you recall, Joanna brought her choice candidate for the Hendersonville Public Library director position with her to the special called meeting in April and asked the board to pass a motion allowing her to hire them; at the time, the board did not even have a resume for that candidate and she had no library qualifications or experience.

As it stands we have a personnel committee within the library board that chooses candidates to then advance on to the full board for approval. Joanna, Erika, and now Mike as a new addition are the only ones on that board. Paul McCoy has asked numerous times in public board meetings to be on that committee, but Joanna will not put him on it. 2 seats came open after resignations from the library board within the last few months, but both of those seats voted with Joanna, so those seats brought no diversity of opinions to the committee. Jackie Wilbur’s term ended leaving a seat on the committee open and although this opening was imminent, Joanna did not fill it. A special called meeting was called for July 18th, but not enough members were able to attend to make quorem. The meeting is anticipated to take place some time in the next few weeks to discuss filling the directors positions. There is one candidate that has been picked for each role. At the time of the July 9th board meeting, the board members had only had 36 hours with resumes for other candidates who had applied but they had been allowed those 2 individuals’ information for several weeks. Joanna stands steady in her belief that it is not a requirement for library directors to have a degree in library science or any experience with libraries and Mike compared the role to a CEO who does not need to know how to do all the jobs in a company. It is going to be important that we continue to follow the library board as they feel these director roles and that we advocate for the search for experienced, well-qualified candidates to lead our libraries.

Lastly, Joanna Daniels’s Library Board appointment is up in November; she is eligible for reappointment to the Library Board by the Sumner County Commission. If you have concerns or thoughts about Joanna’s leadership or actions as Chair or a member of the library board, I encourage you to reach out to the commission and voice them so that they can make a better informed decision about who they will want to appoint to that opening.

Curious about the Collections Policy vote totals?

Joanna Daniels (Chair)- yay

Mike Bryan (Vice- Chair)- yay

Pam Teller (Treasurer)- yay

Erika Grammar- yay

Larry Hinton- abstain

Shannon Burgdorf- abstain

Paul McCoy- nay

Tracey Campbell Parker- nay