County Library Censorship Drama Continues
LWV President Susan Bell, center, with other League members at the Greenville County Library meeting on March 27.
By Susan Bell,
President, LWV of Greenville County
The League of Women Voters opposes censorship and believes that professional librarians should make decisions about materials that are appropriate for our public libraries. This position has been under attack more now than in a very long time and it is important for us to stand up and let decision-makers know that it is not right. Many of you have attended meetings to oppose censorship and to show that there are differing points of view about what is acceptable in our community.
Both the Greenville County Library Board of Trustees and the Greenville County Council should be ashamed of their recent behavior to censor children’s books and to ensure that there is no diversity of thought on the Library Board.
This has been going on since at least June of 2022 when Pride displays were taken down in library branches with no explanation.
In the Library Board of Trustees regular meeting on 3/27/23, they considered a policy recommendation from the Materials Committee that moves books with graphic depictions of sexual acts and violence out of the children’s section and into the adult section of the library. These books are not in the children’s section now. The real intent of the change was to move books with gender-identity themes (read LGBTQ), whether they are age-appropriate and meet industry standards or not, out of the children’s section. The reason they decided to amend the policy recommendation was to, rightfully in my opinion, seek legal council on the First Amendment protections that could generate lawsuits, and not because they think it is a bad idea.
On 4/4, the County Council Committee of the Whole met to consider board and council appointments made by subcommittees. There was one seat for the Library Board open and the appropriate subcommittee recommend Tiffany Santagati to fill this seat. Ms. Santagati has extensive professional, educational and community volunteer experience which would make her an excellent fit for the board. Councilman Blount moved to reconsider all of the original candidates, which let the full council vote by paper ballot (votes which were not made public at the time but have since been). This essentially overrode the subcommittee. Out of 22 board and commission seats voted on at that meeting, this was the only position that was not approved. This action came after Councilman Shaw sent an email to his constituents disparaging Ms. Santagati’s qualifications because she is the Treasurer of 864Pride, among 11 other community organizations she volunteers her time for.
We will continue to speak out against censorship. Six seats will expire on the Library Board in November 2023, which is 50 percent of the board. We need to make sure our County Council members know that we want more diversity on that board between now and then.