Pictured are some of the books in the Parenting Shelf section inside the Livingston Parish Library’s Denham Springs-Walker branch. The Livingston Parish Library Board of Control voted to create a Parenting Shelf during its July 18, 2024 meeting. The self houses juvenile materials and covers topics that can be considered sensitive, challenging or difficult for children.
Pictured are some of the books in the Parenting Shelf section inside the Livingston Parish Library’s Denham Springs-Walker branch. The Livingston Parish Library Board of Control voted to create a Parenting Shelf during its July 18, 2024 meeting. The self houses juvenile materials and covers topics that can be considered sensitive, challenging or difficult for children.
Was it coincidental that after Livingston Parish Council member Ryan Chavers fired Library Board of Control member Francine Smith in October, he replaced her at the Livingston Parish Council meeting with Sen. Valarie Hodges’ legislative assistant Victoria L. “Tori” Hymel? Hodges and Hymel have been instrumental in passing bad laws affecting not only the Livingston library but also libraries statewide. One such law is HB 974, now Act 647, which grants council members the right to remove appointees at any time.
What made Reps. Kellee Dickerson, Roger Wilder, and Jeff Wiley (Shane Mack absented himself), and Sens. Rick Edmonds, Hodges, Eddie Lambert and Bill Wheat think it’s a good idea to support making library board members “at-will” appointees? This reversed a process that has served Livingston well since the library was established in 1946. Replacing members without cause is unfair, undemocratic and un-American. Almost all council members accepted this chaos-causing law without question. They took the bait that Gov. Jeff Landry, Council member Erin Sandefur, Citizens for a New Louisiana director Michael Lunsford (who doesn’t live in Livingston Parish) and their allies orchestrated.
Lunsford did not drive all the way from his CNL headquarters in Lafayette to “save” the library, which had no problems prior to Sandefur’s move to restrict access to books. I know because I served on the library board from 2017-2020. There were zero attempts to censor books. Moreover, during my board tenure, no council members or state legislators ever attended a LBOC meeting. However, after then-Attorney General Landry’s library-packing opinion and the passage of Act 647, these people developed an urgent interest in the public library system. Consequently, Livingston has now joined the national Republican book-banning effort.
CLARK FORREST
Hudson
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