Disagreement between parents and school librarian about ‘inappropriate content’ in children’s books

The Louisiana Supreme Court has revived a lawsuit between a middle school librarian and furious parents who accused her of promoting pornography and ‘erotic content’ to children.

Amanda Jones, the school librarian at Live Oak Middle School, sued the Citizens for a New Louisiana, its leader Michael Lunsford, and parent Ryan Thames for defamation in 2022.

Her lawsuit, seen by DailyMail.com, claimed they publicly accused her of promoting porn and ‘erotic contents’ to minors by placing ‘inappropriate’ books in the ‘kid’s section’ of her library.

The controversial books involved in the argument include ‘Dating and Sex: A Guide for the 21st Century Teen Boy’ by Andrew P. Smiler and ‘Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human’ by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan.

The lawsuit was dismissed that same year, but Jones’ appeal reached the state supreme court who overruled the judgment on Friday – sending the case back to the court of appeals to reconsider.

‘Before all this, I was just a school librarian, but they wanted to silence me, so I thought I would do the exact opposite and become an activist,’ Jones told The New York Times.

‘What we’re seeing now is full-scale attacks on people’s characters if they stand up for books. The hate level and the vitriol is unreal to me.’ 

The ordeal began when Jones spoke out about book bans at the Livingston Parish Library board meeting on July 19, 2022. She immediately faced backlash – and people online started targeting her for defending the literature. 

At the meeting, a board member expressed her concerns about books for children and teens that had ‘inappropriate’ content.

During the public comment section of the meeting, Jones criticized banning books from the library.

She said: ‘Just because you don’t want to read it or see it does not give you the right to deny others or demand its relocation.

‘If we remove or relocate books with L.G.B.T.Q. or sexual health content, what message is that sending to our community members?’

Within days, Jones said her social media was flooded with posts accusing her of sexualizing children. 

‘Here is Amanda Jones at the Livingston Parish Library board meeting on Tuesday, July 19, 2022,’ Citizens for a New Louisiana wrote in a Facebook post provided to Law&Crime. 

‘Why is she fighting so hard to keep sexually erotic and pornographic materials in the kid’s section?’ The content in question is so very terrible that The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) won’t even print it! … What kind of influence would she have over what your six-year-old kindergartner sees in your local SCHOOL’s library?’

Another post accused Jones of ‘advocating teaching anal sex to 11-year-olds,’ according to The Times.

The online abuse triggered Jones to launch the legal battle – as she admitted that two years on, she still can’t leave her home to buy groceries because of the alleged defamation.  

Images in ‘Let’s Talk About It’ – one of the disputed books – include drawings of genitalia and a comic of two women engaging in intimacy discussing ‘check-in words’ such as ‘lubey enough?’ and ‘I want to change positions.’

In the Frequently Asked Questions section of ‘Dating and Sex,’ the author addresses the length of the average erect penis and masturbation.

‘That book is a comic-style book… with vivid depictions of genitalia, the performance of sex acts, as well as instructions for using adult novelty toys,’ Lunsford told Law&Crime about ‘Let’s Talk About It.’ 

‘Louisiana Revised Statute makes clear that most, if not all, of this type of content is clearly not suitable for shelving in the library children’s section.

‘The fact that anyone would stand up and defend that this material should be in the children’s section just blows my mind.’

In January, Lunsford told supporters in a fundraising email that Jones had tried to stop them from exposing explicit material being shown to their children.

‘To catch you up, when we discovered erotic materials in several local public library children’s sections, we got SUED by a librarian,’ the email said.

‘She wanted the court to issue a gag order to prevent us from telling you about these raunchy materials, how they go there and who was supporting leaving them there.’

Jones’ lawyer, Alysson Mills, told WBRZ they are looking forward to their day in court and presenting the case to a jury.

‘I believe a jury of ordinary citizens, whey they hear what happened to her, they would want to hold the defendants accountable. The First Amendment does not protect falsehoods,’ Mills said. 

In a concurring opinion, State Supreme Court Justice Jefferson Hughes said the burden of proof in the case falls on Lunsford and his group.

‘If defendants (Lunsford) can prove that plaintiff (Jones) did the things they claim, then the truth is a defense. If they cannot, they have defamed the plaintiff,’ Hughes said.

‘Defendants have publicly stated that plaintiff ‘promot(ed) pornography and erotic contents to kids’ and ‘advocat(ed) teaching anal sex to 11-year-olds.’ If plaintiff did not do these acts, she cannot prove a negative.

‘The burden will be on the defendants that plaintiff did in fact do the acts they have publicly accused her of.’

Two years later, Jones told the Times she still feels like an outcast in her town and stopped leaving her home to get groceries and go to church.

‘I’m the town pariah now,’ Jones said. ‘I get called a pervert. I can’t grocery shop or go to the store without being called names.’

However, Jones has gained notoriety since the board meeting including awards such as the American Association of School Librarians’ Intellectual Freedom Award and the Louisiana Library Association’s Alex Allain Intellectual Freedom Award in 2023.

During the 2023 National Book Awards Ceremony, Oprah Winfrey praised her and Oprah Daily published an excerpt of Jones newly released memoir, That Librarian, on August.

DailyMail.com contacted Jones’ attorney for comment.