No part of the Lincolnwood Public Library’s collection will be moved or restricted after a heated group of public commenters forced an abrupt end to an Oct. 24 meeting of the library’s board of trustees.
Library Director Josephine Tucci said more than 60 members of the public attended Monday night’s meeting, where videos show conflict erupted in the audience over the library’s collection and programming.
Tucci said some of the commenters were misinformed about a program they thought the library had held but which had not taken place — “something to do with a drag queen storytime where the drag queen conducted the program, and that never happened,” she said.
Tucci said other commenters were objecting to a book called “The Bare Naked Book.” Administrators said Tuesday that the library does not have the book in its collection, but on Wednesday, Deputy Library Director Chris Renkosiak clarified, “We actually do own that Bare Naked book. It was just marked as missing in our catalog.”
Goodreads.com, a sizable mainstream book review website, noted, “‘The Bare Naked Book’ has been a beloved fixture in libraries, classrooms, and at-home story times since its original publication in 1986.”
After a handful of public comments at Monday’s meeting, one meeting attendee began shouting at the people who were addressing the board, Tucci said.
“It just escalated and everyone started shouting at the same time,” she said. “And they couldn’t hear the board president trying to speak. And it just kept getting worse and the board started to feel slightly threatened.”
On Tuesday, Wendy Katten identified herself as the attendee who shouted.
“These parents claim to represent freedom and freedom means minding your own business and letting librarians and parents determine what books are appropriate,” Katten said.
Eventually, the meeting was dismissed by the board and police came onto the scene at the request of library officials. Officers dispersed the attendees from the room immediately upon adjournment, according to Lincolnwood Police Chief Jay Parrott.
The board will need to attend to its unfinished business from Monday at a future meeting, Tucci said. She expects public participation to continue.
“We anticipate we will have more visitors at all of our upcoming meetings for a while,” she said. “So we’ll be very clear at the very beginning of the meeting about what is appropriate conduct and that if people don’t follow the appropriate conduct, they will be asked to leave the building for the evening.”
Mateo Farzaneh, 55, of Lincolnwood, said he attended the meeting after getting an email notifying him that public commenters planned to speak against books they perceived as being inappropriate for children at the meeting.
“My understanding was that the board meeting last night was the community’s chance to discuss whether they want these books banned or placed somewhere else,” he said.
After tensions began to escalate at the meeting, “everyone started yelling and [there were] a lot of derogatory comments about gay people, lesbians,” Farzaneh said.
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He had been signed up to speak but was unable to do so before police ended the meeting.
Elisa Gall, 38, of Evanston, attended the meeting to voice opposition to moving or removing any part of the library’s collection.
“Even if someone says, ‘oh, I’m not trying to ban a book. I just think we need to restrict access,’ that’s also sending a message to families, especially people who are members of the LGBT community, that that book is not age appropriate, that that identity is not age appropriate, and that you are not welcome here in the children’s section,” Gall said.
Tucci, the library director, said no books or other parts of the collection would be moved in response to the events at the Monday meeting.
Check back for updates on this story at www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lincolnwood.