Slidell Council joins effort to halt ‘porn’ available to kids
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Pressure continued to mount on the St. Tammany Library Board and Director Kelly LaRocca when the Slidell City Council approved a resolution at its Tuesday night meeting urging the Library Board to take action to “safeguard children from obscene materials,” which have been reported at the parish public libraries by a host of concerned citizens.
The resolution was introduced by first-year Councilman Trey Brownfield after a firestorm of criticism hit the Library Board in recent months—particularly at its last meeting when over 100 upset citizens showed up to complain. The criticism began several months earlier when two parish women discovered what they called “pornographic and pedophiliac materials” available to children in the public libraries.
Since then, the board has not taken any action on its own but offered the process of filing a “Statement of Concern” over one book at a time. To date, the parish women said they have found over 130 books they consider inappropriate for underage children due to sexual topics including gay, lesbian and transgender information, as well as sex guides for teens.
During the mounting outcry from the public, the board nor LaRocca has made any move to take specific action on any books, although the director did say this past week they are “working on a plan to give parents more tools” so they can help their children make good choices.
LaRocca has continued to state unequivocally that books being placed in any restricted area is not something they are currently considering because she believes all books should be available for the entire community to protect the access to information under the First Amendment.
Brownfield said, as many of the other critics have, that he is not looking to ban books, but merely, “to limit accessibility of these books to children.”
Brownfield noted the only TV station to cover the heavily attended Library Board of Control meeting in October “said they could not even show the books on air due to the nature of the content. What does that tell you about these books?”
Councilwoman Cindi King said she was concerned about censorship, but then heard from attorney David Cougle, one of the leaders of the newly formed group St. Tammany Library Accountability Project, who emphasized “we mainly want them restricted, at the very least.”
Cougle said the books are similar to ones that have been appearing at libraries around the country.
“Every time these books surface in public libraries the parents go crazy,” he said. “The books are clearly targeted to children since they have cartoonish pictures, just like Joe Camel was a cartoon figure to get kids to smoke.”
“These books are meant to arouse sexual feelings in young children,” he said.
While books publicized so far have been supportive of gay, lesbian and transgender topics, they also include extensive pornography. Cougle said they have also identified books that display “bondage and sado-machochism. They are clearly pornographic although the library director continues to say she does not believe they have any pornography in the public libraries.”
The council voted 8-0 in favor of the resolution, with Councilwoman Leslie Denham absent.
The resolution by the Slidell City Council is the latest in a growing number of individuals or groups stepping out to criticize the materials.
The Republican Party Executive Committee (RPEC) was the first organization to go public with questions about the materials. They have called a public meeting for Nov. 28 at the City Council Chambers for what they stated as “grave concerns about the intentional exposure of children in St. Tammany Parish to pornographic material at our public libraries.”
Their statement went on to say, “we have been provided the material which indicates that our children are being exposed to sexually explicit materials at our public library.” They also suggested the materials might be in violation of several state laws.
Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer was presented with several of the books on Tuesday to review and reacted with shock at what he saw.
“What I saw was pornography that our children have easy access to at our public libraries,” he said. “This is not about censorship; it is about exposing our children to pornography at a young age. All anyone is asking is to make them inaccessible without parental approval. That is not banning books.”
Cougle is another concerned citizen and father who is among the leadership calling for LaRocca’s firing, as well as the Library Board to do something to protect the children of the parish.
“There is no way to redeem what Ms. LaRocca and this board has allowed,” he said. “Our kids have already been exposed to this and we have to stop it as soon as possible.
“We have an expectation of the library being a safe place for our kids and it appears obvious that the books coming into our libraries, the same ones we see going to other libraries around the country to sexualize our children, have been brought here. This was completely intentional, it was completely avoidable, and the library director needs to be fired for this,” he added.
Cougle and others leading the fight against the board are asking for a parental accountability board to be set up to review questioned books, as well as seeing books before they are brought into the system.
LaRocca, who was hired as director in 2019 after serving one year as interim director, said that the current system is set up for her to hire book selectors who have a variety of ways to decide what new books will be brought in.
Currently, out of seven books which have Statements of Concern filed against them, five have been brought into the system in the past two years since LaRocca became director. Any books which have a Statement of Concern are then reviewed by a committee, also selected by LaRocca.
To date, no books have been removed or restricted, public information officer Amy Bouton said.
Comments are closed.