Librarian Suspended for Patrons' Computer Use

This AP/Gainesville.com story, sent to the ALA Council List by Jessamyn, is fairly alarming:

A Florida Panhandle librarian has been suspended and may be fired by officials upset that a registered sex offender and three boys allegedly used the city library's computers to access pornographic Internet sites.

Sue Martin, head librarian at the Valparaiso Community Library, was suspended with pay and will receive a hearing within 60 days, City Attorney Doug Wyckoff said Thursday.

I'm anxious to hear more details.  The library does use "blocking software," and it sounds like there is heavy staff monitoring. 

Comments

[Matbert]

Panhandle Florida. There is Southern hospitality down there. But don't go there. Not even as a dumb-shit tourist.

It is a backward place, with corrupt dirt road politics that would shame Boss Hogg. It's a place laced with ignorance, bigotry and is in the joyous heart of the Bible belt.

It's a place where a congressman can have a dead aid in his office, and no one cares.

It's a place where requests for book removals are based on 1) "a six-pack of beer" being in the passenger seat of the hero's jeep, or 2) b/c of the obscene language found in "My Friend Flicka."

It's the land of Saint Ronnie.

It's a place where a director got fired for using fine money to buy needed office supplies and books for her library.

It's a place where in the 1980's, a lynching in Mobile, AL, was not reported in any of the local papers.

It's a place with some of the highest crime and rape rates in the U. S.

It's a place with some of the worst schools in the nations.

It's a place where Vietnamese fishermen were targeted for special legislation, b/c they were too successful relative to the inbred, good ol' boys.

Ya see, it's on the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe you remember the recent BBC story-- not reported by the U.S. media-- on the growing pollution in the Gulf: sewage, poisons, etc. Dead fish, dead turtles, dead dolphins, with more dead things every day. The panhandle's concern about this lethal contamination is that it'll scare away them tourists if they's hear 'bout it.

Yeah, it's a place where a librarian can be fired over internet access. Make it a perv, and the deal will go down. Unless the perv is the mayor or sheriff.

Trust me on this one,
Matbert