Defending the Truth

Take a look at this article:

MLive.com: Everything Michigan

This is the library where my children love to go. My 5 year old loves to go there, read the books, put pennies in the fountain. It's located right down the street from the middle school where my 14 year old goes, and he often goes there after school for homework and research, and around the corner from the high school where my 2 oldest go, and they are known to walk there after school, too.

The director the library board is refusing to block websites like MySpace from the library computers which is the main reason these punks are hanging out at the library. Instead her solution is to spend MORE money and hire a security guard, which is ridiculous since police presence hasn't made a bit of difference (the Wyoming Police dept and City hall are less then a mile away).

Her other argument was that the library can't take over the job of the parents. To me, that is stupid, since, if these kids are in gangs, the parents don't really care what their kids are doing in the first place. And what about the safety of good kids who go there to read? Now they are saying parents have to be with their kids at the library 100% of the time? WTF?

What do you think? Should the parents demand those websites be blocked to stop the gangs from hanging out? Or do you agree it's a first amendment thing?

This is very upsetting to me to read. Our little city payed millions of dollars to build this beautiful building just a few years ago, and to think that these punks are ruining it just burns me up.

Here's a pic:

Wyoming, MI : Wyoming Public Library photo




Oh, and BTW, these are Hispanic gangs that were non-existent 10 years ago.

I come at this from a different perspective; I worked in a public library for 12+ years -- from around 1980 to 1992. We were also within easy walking distance of a K-8 private school and a 7-12 public school.

I don't think any child who is too young to drive his or her self should ever be left at a library without a parent or other responsible adult accompanying him/her. Once they are old enough to drive, hopefully they are also responsible enough to be trusted to take care of themselves.

Library staff are not baby-sitters. And they have no legal authority over or legal responsibility for children left there unattended.

If your child suddenly decides to head out the door and go -- well wherever -- library staff have absolutely no authority to stop him.

If your child goes outside runs into the street and is seriously injured or if he is just suddenly taken seriously ill are the library staff going to know how to contact you?

If your child goes outside and is stung by a bee is the library staff going to know if he is allergic to stings and know the appropriate steps to take if he is?

And your kid may be the perfect library patron and never cause a problem. We had a lot of those when I worked at the library. But if the library allows your child to hang out every afternoon after school without supervision how do they get rid of the troublemakers? Their only recourse is to ban kids one at a time after they have caused a problem. And this involves filing police reports, restraining orders, etc.

How much do you suppose the city wants to pay a professional librarian per year to spend hundreds of hours in court dealing with those tasks?

And I don't know how many times we contacted parents to try and solve a problem before it got to that point only to be told, "My child wouldn't do that."

I always felt like saying, "OK lady, you're right. I just hate kids and picked your little angel at random for persecution today."

As to restricting certain sites such as MySpace, I see both sides. I don't think that it is good for kids to have access to these sites. And I can see how their leading to gang confrontations is a serious problem.

On the other hand a lot of adults use them for networking for such things as hobby groups and even job searching. Yes, to me, it is a free speech issue. How can restricting adult access to these sites be justified? Or how can kids be restricted without also restriciting adult access?

The gang problem is a little more difficult for me to respond to. I live/work in a small town. Our "gangs" usually consist of a few pothead punks with tatoos and matching ball caps. A real urban gang would eat them for lunch. So I can't relate.

But if there are gangs in the area, perhaps a security guard is not a bad idea whether or not other measures are put into place.

Don't allow gang kids in the library in the first place.

I think the whole point I was getting to was if they ban those sites, the gang-bangers would just naturally leave because that's the only reason they come to the library in the first place.

As for leaving my teenage sons there, we'll just agree to disagree. I think you have to start trusting your children about that age, and leaving them at a library or a mall or a movie theater is a good way to start. Obviously I would never leave my 5 year old there alone.

I want the library to stay a safe place for EVERYBODY (another spot in the same newspaper talked about how the gang-bangers intimidate people to make them get off the computers).

But is that justification for restricting access by adults?


So long as you are willing to accept responsibility for their actions while they are there and not hold the library or staff responsible if they come to harm or leave, that is fine.

And remember, if your sons can stay there unsupervised, so can the gang-bangers. I suspect if you spent a month or so in the shoes of the library staff, you would change your mind.

Hence my feeling that a security guard is probably a good idea whatever other steps are taken.

Probably if an adult wants to get onto MySpace, he/she can go to a library staff member and have them disable the software on that particular computer until they are finished. It isn't that hard to do.




I always am.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrazyFlamingos And remember, if your sons can stay there unsupervised, so can the gang-bangers. I suspect if you spent a month or so in the shoes of the library staff, you would change your mind.

My sons are going there to do necessary school work. I certainly don't want them accessing MySpace where I can't monitor it. And if those websites are not available, the whole reason the gang-bangers are there will be gone. What, they going to hang out there to read?

Amen to that.

I think if a child really wants to log onto myspace.com, only the parent should know the password and scan the site vigorusly to see if there any sexual predators/offenders onsite.

I don't use that website very much, and I don't care for it that much, either.