Originally Published by The John Birch Society - Truth, Leadership, Freedom (http://www.jbs.org/)
Librarian Fired for Turning in Pedophile
By Dr. John Fisher
Created 2008-04-09 14:33
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 [1]"
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 [1] 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.
Dr. John Fisher [1]
Dr. John Fisher teaches communications and researches in the area of mass media and political decision making.
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