Friday, March 28, 2025

Librarians Collude with ALA to Violate Open Government Laws and Dox Citizens; Kelly LaRocca in St. Tammany Parish Library Is a Prime Example

Why might a strong privacy policy be needed in your library?  Librarians collude with American Library Association in Chicago, Illinois, to violate open government records. They even provide ALA with private information about their own citizens.  

In Louisiana, "award" winning St. Tammany Parish Library Director Kelly LaRocca is a prime example.  She began turning records over to ALA then likely followed ALA's direction to use personal emails to hide such submissions from open government laws.  She recently admitted publicly to providing information to ALA but claimed she no longer does.  I believe she still does, only she follows ALA advice to use personal emails.  She says she doesn't.  But the very entity that gave her an "award" trains librarians in how to hide information from the public—and I'm the investigative reporter who uncovered that and reported it.

And all this to hide that the people being doxxed are complaining about access by children to explicit material the whole world thinks is inappropriate for children, except ALA, its member librarians, and the members of the hundreds of local groups it creates, like St. Tammany Library Alliance.  The latter, for example, denied that Kelly LaRocca admitted to turning private information over to ALA, even after Ms. LaRocca admitted she did.

Documents turned over to ALA are then made available to other librarians who use the documents to mock parents in forums like a Facebook group called ALA Think Tank (since renamed Library Think Tank to hide the association with ALA, but it's still in the URL).  Worse, sometimes the documents are used to sue people who are then mocked in court papers for the contents of these confidential documents.

It's like a free gift to ALA.  They get free Freedom of Information Act request responses without even having to ask for the information in the first place.  Then they get to use the documents to feed to their friends to sue parents and teachers who submitted those documents so as to further intimidate other people who dare to ever challenge any inappropriate material for children in any library.

St. Tammany Parish Library Board of Control has put a stop to this waste of local services that only serves to arm an outside group against its own citizens and against children nationwide.  It did so at a public hearing where a resolution to stop sending information to ALA either publicly or privately was passed unanimously.

Hear the entire hearing here:
Here are links to specific points of interest, the first being where discussion of the privacy resolution begins:
  • "Resolution No. 25-003 Resolution to Amend Rules and Regulations of the St. Tammany Parish Library Board of Control Section 202 Regarding Privacy Policy (Branton)" https://vimeo.com/1069935835#t=78m08s
  • St. Tammany Parish Councilman David Cougle speaks: https://vimeo.com/1069935835#t=85m47s
    • He speaks about the specifics of the problem and the connection to ALA and its Unite Against Book Bans and EveryLibrary
    • He says the problem involves the concerns of parents with s3xually explicit materials were required to fill out a form (called a "Statement of Concern") that was ultimately turned over to ALA without notice to the parents
    • He says library director Kelly LaRocca wrote to ALA with confidential documents and ALA's "Office for Intellectual Freedom" wrote back saying the information would be stored in a "confidential" database
    • He points out multiple librarians were involved in the invasion of privacy
    • He says library employees discussed how book challenges were reported to both ALA and its subgroup EveryLibrary, a group also based in Illinois.
    • He discusses documents revealed by FOIA request, and those documents are shown below
    • He points out the violation of privacy may be ongoing because of ALA direction to use personal emails (pictured and linked below)
    • He points out the library employees were using taxpayer time and taxpayer resources to support a political campaign of ALA, including fundraising for ALA's "book ban" hoax organization called Unite Against Book Bans, and US Department of Education recently revealed it was all an ALA hoax 
    • He points out ALA did not request redactions of personal information
    • He pointed out an outside organization in Chicago was obtaining a free service for which local citizens would have to pay
    • He says these activities were a violation of the trust of parish residents and was an improper use of taxpayer funds and time
    • He says parish residents names could still be retained in ALA's "confidential" database
    • David Cougle speaks again here: https://vimeo.com/1069935835#t=130m14s
      • "There's a public records law that all of the people are supposed to follow and what was happening in this instance is somehow the ALA was skipping the line that the rest of us are obligated to follow"
      • "But for some reason the American Library Association was jumping in front of St. Tammany taxpayers and residents and getting it immediately, and that's what this needs to address and that can't happen anymore"



  • Devin McGee speaks: https://vimeo.com/1069935835#t=90m43s
    • He speaks in favor of the privacy resolution regarding PII and exposes just how harmful is ALA, including a man bullied by "loud, aggressive, well funded activists" who "swarm" people then threaten them. "Our reaction is their real action."
    • He says library director Kelly LaRocca lied to him that the library has nothing to to with ALA, yet public records says otherwise
    • He says the language of "book banning" is an intentional misuse of language to deceive
    • "The entire ALA organization is rotten from the root and steeped in leftist communism milieu control"
    • He says shelving books properly based on content is not "bans"
    • Here he is with his signs before the meeting started:



  • St. Tammany Parish Library Director Kelly LaRocca speaks: https://vimeo.com/1069935835#t=100m07s
    • ALA has an online form to fill out
    • "I did fill out the form which is why you have it in public records request"
    • "I was not using my personal email address"
    • "I don't have time for that"
    • "we have a spreadsheet on the website" - has the name but other information is redacted
    • As to the Statements of Concern about books (not about displays), "no, they were not reported to the ALA"—although that contradicts written evidence that library employees discussed how book challenges were reported to both ALA and its subgroup EveryLibrary, a group also based in Illinois
  • St. Tammany Parish Library Vice President of Library Board of Control Charles Branton speaks: https://vimeo.com/1069935835#t=112m55s
    • He drafted the privacy resolution and he now goes into detail on his support for the resolution
    • He points out how he has "a problem" with ALA requesting and getting private information while their stated goals are not in conformity with the people of the parish
  • Privacy Resolution read out in full: https://vimeo.com/1069935835#t=140m33s
Here is where ALA tells librarians to use private means to submit the private documents, emphasis in original:
  • Personal email address *
  • Please provide a personal email address to protect the confidentiality of our communications. We encourage you to review your state's FOIA or Open Records laws concerning your personal email account. ALA is committed to protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of our communications.


Here is where a Louisiana school librarian trains other librarians to use personal devices to hide information (about inappropriate books for children) from open government laws:



Here is that same librarian writing her parent-precluding policies into her book that's a best seller among librarians, such as to use the Signal app to hide things:



Louisiana Library Association training to hide things from open government laws is relevant to the St. Tammany library matter where the library director says they are no longer reporting to ALA.  Yet they are trained to use personal devices.  Does anyone think the pipeline to ALA has been cut off?  Nope, it's just gone underground, in my opinion.

By the way, ALA created the local library "alliance" called St. Tammany Library Alliance.  Because it acts for Chicago's ALA, it flat out lied about what Kelly LaRocca said, "In case you missed it, at last night’s library board meeting, the director officially stated for the record that no personal information of library patrons was shared with the American Library Association."  No, LaRocca said, "I did fill out the form which is why you have it in public records request" and she said she revealed at least names to ALA.  Also, documents prove information was turned over to ALA.



This is why privacy resolutions locking out ALA and all its tentacles are needed.  Essentially it protects citizens from harassment by ALA-created local groups and by ALA itself, its affiliates and partners.  

Librarians need to be clear they work for the citizens, not ALA, and if they are caught lying, it's sayōnara sister.



ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ADDED SAME DAY OF INITIAL PUBLICATION:

This page is being modified to remove the graphic in the upper right and replace it with a new one.  This action is taken in response to an official request to remove the graphic that I received on the same day of publication, and I'm responding on the same day:
Dear Mr. Kleinman:

Any use of the St. Tammany Parish Government logo on the “SafeLibraries” blog is a
violation of STPG’s official service mark.  The STPG logo is registered with the Louisiana
Secretary of State and it may not be used by third parties without STPG’s express consent.

Please remove the STPG logo from the SafeLibraries’ March 28, 2025, post, and any other
post displaying the logo at your earliest convenience.  Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
Here are graphics of the official request:




Well, isn't this interesting:


Who knew?  Seems to me that the parish government acted properly to police and protect its intellectual property.  So no complaints from me.  

If only the library acted properly as well to police and protect the privacy of its citizens, but they answer to a higher power: Chicago's ALA.  Just today, Texas school librarian Carolyn Foote, on a podcast called "School Librarians United," said, "But I also think the strategic behind-the-scenes work right now for, for all of us is so important to moving the issues we care about."  I'm certain Kelly LaRocca would agree with that 100%.


This is the second time I've been asked to remove material by Louisiana governments.  I always respond as soon as I can.  In the first instance I had to removed an entire transcript for which I paid money to obtain an accurate rendition.  See here:

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