Librarian Fired for Turning in Pedophile
http://www.jbs.org/node/7636By Dr. John Fisher
Published: 2008-04-09 14:33 Email this page | printer friendly version


ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:
A librarian in Lindsay, California was fired when she disobeyed orders of
superiors who told her to ignore a patron who was looking at child pornography
on library computers. Instead she called police who charged the man after
finding his home computer also contained child pornography.

Follow this link to the original source: "Librarian in nation's headlines"

COMMENTARY:
The website for local newspapers, The Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare
Advance-Register, reported how this incident has changed librarian Brenda
Biesterfeld's life and brought unwanted notoriety to the community.

Biesterfeld said she is overwhelmed by the media attention, though she has
heard little of what's being said about her situation online.

"When I decided to go to the police, I could not foresee this was going to
happen," she said. "I was just doing the right thing, I thought, as an employee
and a mother and a citizen."

On CNN, Glenn Beck interviewed Matthew Staver, Brenda Biesterfeld's attorney

Staver said, "She didn`t do anything wrong. She did the moral and legal
possibility that all of us would do, when they saw something like this."

"She was working in the library.. And she saw this individual viewing child
pornography. Not just any pornography, child pornography. When she reported it
to [her supervisor], she just said, 'Give him a warning, and if he does it
again, he can`t come back.'"

"Well, it disturbed her so much... she called the police. They said, 'If he
comes back again, call us, let us know.'"

"He came back again. He viewed pornography of children again. She called the
police. When they arrived, they caught him in the act of viewing child
pornography, and they arrested him. They searched his home, found child
pornography on his home computer."

According to Staver, her supervisor claimed it was a "privacy issue." Two days
later, the county library fired Biesterfeld, who was close to ending a six month
probationary period.

Viewing child pornography is not a privacy right, whether in one's home or in
the public library. It's a crime. Biesterfeld did the right and moral thing in
reporting this crime.

As Ann Shibler wrote in this column:

Our Founding Fathers never intended that such detestable crimes have the
protection of the Constitution when they approved the Bill of Rights containing
the First Amendment. In modern parlance, it's more than a bit of a stretch to
think that the Founding Fathers would condone the sexual exploitation of
children under the heading of 'free speech.' That is why they left moral
legislation up to the states.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]