Was Probationary Tulare County Staffer Fired for Reporting Child Porn?
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 3/17/2008
- Staffer defied supervisor
- County claims miscommunication
- Child porn should always be reported
A newly hired library assistant still on six-month probation who went around official channels to report a man viewing child pornography to the police has been fired, and that has local residents and officials jumping to her defense. Brenda Biesterfeld, who worked in the Lindsay branch of the Tulare County Library, CA, blames the firing on the incident, though library and county officials said they couldn’t discuss details, according to the Visalia Times-Delta. [Correction: LJ initially referred to Biesterfeld as a librarian. See update.]
Biesterfeld told the newspaper that she saw a man, later identified as Donny Lynn Chrisler, looking at thumbnail images of naked boys (nine to 13 years old) on a library computer. She contacted her offsite supervisor, Judi Hill, whom she said told her to give the man (who is deaf) a note telling him to stop and warning him that a second incident would get him banned. Hill, she said, told her she didn’t need to contact the police.
Later, however, Biesterfeld did call police, who said she should call them when Chrisler returned to the library.They found him again looking at child pornography. (The library does filter Internet pornography sites, but police said the images were attached to an e-mail.) They later found more images at his home.
Biesterfeld finally told Hill she’d called the police. A week later, Biesterfeld was terminated, which Lindsay City Councilwoman Suzi Picaso called suspicious, given that, six weeks earlier, a library administrator had praised Biesterfeld. A county spokesman told the Fresno Bee that police are called when child pornography is viewed, but in this case, they thought Biesterfeld was reporting "suspected pornography, not child pornography"—a contention the fired staffer disputes.
On her Library Law blog today, Mary Minow, while not specifically referencing this incident, advised that “Child pornography is NOT protected free speech. If you see someone looking at child porn in the library, call the police. If you see only the website and no patron, you can still report it to the FBI or Cyber Tip Line 800-843-5678.”
The Lindsay City Council later sent a letter to the Tulare County Board of Supervisors saying Hill and County Librarian Brian Lewis "failed to meet the public trust." The Times-Delta editorialized that this was “one of the most embarrassing public relations messes we have ever witnessed,” suggesting that the available facts favored Biesterfeld. The county Board of Supervisors has set up a performance evaluation for Lewis; such a personnel matter is discussed in closed session.
