A very quick follow up on the story of the librarian fired because she handed a patron over to the police for viewing child porn at the library.
An extremely short article in the Visalia Times-Delta states that supervisors will evaluate County Librarian Brian Lewis, the terminated librarian’s former supervisor.
Another report on the original incident.
Huh. I’d hand over a patron
Huh. I’d hand over a patron to the police too, if it was child porn. Regular porn, no.
Preaching to the chior
You will probably have 99% of the librarians here agreeing with you.
While I am not in favor of patrons (or staff for that matter) viewing porn in the library, it is not a crime.
Child porn is a crime and those who view, make, or otherwise are involved with it are disgusting.
whistleblower
the chronology in this story makes it appear like there was retaliation:
“Biesterfeld hadn’t told her supervisors that she called the police or that she was assisting them. ”
‘”She kind of threatened me,” Biesterfeld said.”
if she was reporting an unsafe work environment (unsafe for children) and a supervisor retaliates with termination, that could be covered by federal whistleblowing protection.
the problem is that she was still on probation, so they could really use any excuse to fire her.
Reserving judgment
Of course, California law prevents the library administration from saying anything about Biesterfield’s employment status, quality of work, or her termination. We only have her word for many of the claimed facts in this case.