Missouri Librarian Loses Job, Blames Family Friendly Libraries

Staff -- School Library Journal, 4/1/1998

Kathy Herrin, Coordinator of Children's Services at the Mexico-Audrain (MO) County Public Library, is out of a job after 21 years in the field. Her library board gave her an ultimatum in February: resign with severance pay or be fired. This followed on the heels of a 45-day probationary period that started in December.

Herrin opted to resign, although she called performance concerns a red herring since neither the library's director nor her immediate supervisor criticized her work in the four years she worked there. Board President Karen Scott declined to discuss personnel issues.

What cost her the job, Herrin believes, is that she supported Robie H. Harris's It's Perfectly Normal (Candlewick, 1994), a sex education book that came under fire in the community last summer. The board voted unanimously to keep the book in children's rooms, but Herrin maintained the vote was not, in fact, unanimous. Shortly after the vote, a group called Audrain County Citizens for Family Friendly Libraries formed, and according to Herrin, pressured the board to dump her. ACCFFL denied that charge.