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The Alabama Public Library Service board on Thursday voted to withhold state aid to the Fairhope Public Library due to two books it said violate new state aid requirements.
The board made the decision after several individuals came before the board during a public comment session and claimed that the library is openly defying the requirement under the agency’s new administrative code to move alls sexually explicit books out of sections for youth or children.
They specifically pointed to the book “Grown” by Tiffany D. Jackson and “Sold” by Patricia McCormick to make their case. The books tell the stories of children sold or coerced into sex work and are both located in the youth section of the library.
Board member Amy Minton made the motion to halt funding to the library, which board member Ron Snider called “highly inappropriate.” Snider tried to convince the board to give Fairhope notice that they find the inclusion of the books to be in violation and give them 60 days (until the next board meeting) to take action.
Minton pressed that the board should immediately withhold funding and if the books are removed within 30 days, “funding can be turned back on.”
“They do have books in their minor sections right now that you would call a violation; and look, there is no loophole,” Wahl said. “The policy change is very clear … No government agency can turn a blind eye and allow someone under their authority to purposely disobey state code.”
Read Freely Alabama condemned the decision in a statement Thursday.
“Ignoring the voices of actual Fairhope taxpayers and library users, the APLS Board, four of whom are openly in bed with Moms For Liberty and Clean Up Alabama, revoked Fairhope Library’s funding, ignoring the board’s due process for challenged materials and ignoring, once again, the parents of Alabama who have spoken in support of intellectual freedom,” Read Freely leaders said in the statement. “This decision was made without any transparency to the community. This is not small government – this is big government reaching into the public institutions designed to serve all Alabamians and destroying constitutional rights.”
The Fairhope chapter of Read Freely has started a fundraiser in hopes to offset the estimated $42,000 shortfall from the decision.
Wahl had previously spoken about the Fairhope Library on right-wing radio and said the library might have to serve as “an example” due to noncompliance with state code.
A letter delivered to Wahl by 100 Fairhope parents criticized those comments, and Wahl’s response indicated that the library had since come into compliance with the code.
