Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Amanda Jones 'That Librarian' Deletes School Library Social Media to Hide Something; Here's My FOIA to Found Out What

Here is a Freedom of Information Act request I filed on the Live Oak Middle School, Denham Springs, LA because the school deleted two of its social media accounts under suspicious circumstances and it might be newsworthy to find out why.  Further, it might be a violation of Louisiana law, a violation intended to keep parents and legislators from investigating the potential for the provision of inappropriate information to school children without the parents knowledge.

For an example of laws that may have been broken by the immediate deletion of the school's social media accounts, see Louisiana Public Records Law, IX. Other Notes for Custodians; D. Non-permanent records shall be preserved for three years unless otherwise directed by statute or by approval of the state archivist. La. R.S. 44:36 at https://www.brla.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7145/LADOJ-Public-Records-Presentation-Outline where it is required that records such as social media posts "shall be preserved for three years" unless certain conditions exist that do not apply here.  It appears Amanda Jones, a public employee pictured top right, deleted the records immediately after receiving an email addressed to her principal from me asking for my social media account to be unblocked by the school social media account she apparently manages.  

Given her self-admitted history of hiding information from parents, it is possible the deletion of the social media accounts was intended to further that same goal.  Mind you, this person just wrote a book called "That Librarian" that is designed to explain her actions and teach other school librarians how to be "#BetterTogether" against parents, and this book is being heavily promoted by the American Library Association [ALA] and its Unite Against Book Bans partners (https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/partners/), including one ALA astroturf group started by Amanda Jones herself, namely, "Lafayette Citizens Against Censorshiphttps://www.lacitizensagainstcensorship.org/.

More explained within the body of the request and response so far presented here:


Under the Louisiana Public Records Act § 44:1 et seq., I am requesting electronic copies, sent as attachments to a reply email, of public records, even if personal accounts were used, that discuss in any way the recent deletion of the @LOMiddleLibrary social media account on X, formerly known as Twitter and formerly located here: https://twitter.com/LOMiddleLibrary, and the deletion of the @lom_ibrary social media account on Instagram and formerly located here: https://www.instagram.com/lom_library/.  

Let me explain a little background to better explain the public documents I seek.  Recall I sent an email dated 24 April 2024, with a courtesy CC to school librarian Amanda Jones who ran the @LOMiddleLibrary account, requesting that @LOMiddleLibrary unblock my X account due to such a block being illegal.  That night @LOMiddleLibrary was deleted, not just "protected" but actually deleted as in the account no longer exists.  (So I'm not sending a courtesy CC to the librarian this time.  And the illegal condition was never resolved and neither have I received any response from anyone to my email, so now I’m thinking no response was provided because the account was deleted.  So there are public communications between you and the librarian documenting this deletion.)  Initially thinking this deletion was a glitch, I waited for the account to return to being online.  It never has.  Neither have.  It is now clear to me that the account was intentionally deleted.  Looking at the school library’s web site at https://www.lomlibrary.org I noticed links across the top.  It’s from there that I learned the Instagram account listed and linked has been deleted, as well as the X account.  It’s from there that I learned the link to YouTube https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCwpfE-WUpZITcJv-0xUpMiw goes to a page for a personal business called, "Jones Education Consulting."  I’ve never before seen a public school web site link to a person’s private consulting business.

If there are any fees for searching or electronically copying these records, please inform me if the cost will exceed $25.  However, I would also like to request a waiver of all fees in that the disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest and will contribute significantly to the public’s understanding of Amanda Jone’s statements that local parents are "not modern" so she sneaks past the parents materials that train children in "social justice" and that s*xualizes them, about which I have reported here: "Poster Girl for ALA: 'That Librarian' Amanda Jones Indoctrinates Students Without Parents Knowing" https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2024/02/poster-girl-for-ala.html, since I am a representative of the news media as a citizen journalist and my request is related to news gathering purposes.   I asked for my account to be unblocked and the response was to delete the entire @LOMiddleLibrary account that very night.  That account deletion is super newsworthy.  And the destruction of public documents, namely the deletion of tweets or posts, might even be a violation of Louisiana public records retention laws and perhaps ethics codes, and might even be worth another FOIA request to seek existing records of what has been deleted.  Certainly the deletion of school social media sites will be of public interest to at least the parish residents, including the "not modern" parents, and likely to the nation generally as Amanda Jones’s book, "That Librarian," will be available this August.  Certainly the public will want to know if and why the author of "That Librarian" has violated Louisiana law to apparently protect herself from her own self-revealed method of indoctrinating school children without parents knowing.  Certainly the public will want to know if her school administration is defending her instead of taking appropriate action to protect the children and comply with Louisiana law.  This information is not being sought for commercial purposes.

Section 44:32(D) of the Louisiana Public Records Act requires a response within three business days.  If access to the records I am requesting will take longer than that time period, please contact me with information about when I might expect electronic copies of the requested records.

If you deny any or all of this request, please cite each specific exemption you feel justifies the refusal to release the information and notify me of the appeal procedures available to me under the law.

Thank you for considering my request.

Sincerely,

Dan Kleinman



The Live Oak Middle School principal has responded the same day:

I will consult with our District representative about your request and will let you know soon.





See also from SafeLibraries about Amanda Jones:


NOTE ADDED 4 MAY 2024:

I've gotten a second email, this one also saying they are working on it.  It's from Bruce Chaffin, dated 2 May, subject "Public records request Lice Oak Middle," and he doesn't know how right he is.  The email says "we ... are reviewing our system for any communication you are asking for."  Bad grammar for a Livingston Parish Public Schools assistant superintendent, but whatever.  I'm concerned about "reviewing our system."  You see, that leaves out communications outside the "system" that must be included by Louisiana law, as I said, "even if personal accounts were used."  Personal accounts are outside the "system."  If the answer comes back that "our system" found nothing and the answer provides no additional answer, then I will be forced to follow up, and again that will be viewed as further harassment of Amanda Jones because of more I'll have to disclose about her.  These are typical FOIA games played by people hiding things.  Schools and libraries that aren't hiding things answer right away.  But let's see what a final response ultimately produces.  Hmm, maybe someone should FOIA the school to see if and how much money was expended for legal assistance in replying to my simple request.  All in due time.


SECOND NOTE ADDED 4 MAY 2024:

In addition to deleting social media accounts in response to my first email to the school, I now see Amanda Jones has deleted the portion of the links navigation on the school web site that I referenced in the FOIA request where I remarked about the links pointing to her personal business and the social media she deleted.  That has been deleted from the site a few days ago as the Google cache of the page from yesterday shows the link bar has already been removed.

Her removal of the links bar tells anyone, 1) her repeatedly deleting things I'm reporting corroborates her own statements about hiding things from the "not modern" parents, 2) she's at a minimum embarrassed by a link on the school's public web page to her own personal business, and she may be trying to hide or quietly correct an ethics violation that may cost her her job, and 3) Amanda's repeatedly cleaning after my investigative reports indicate the investigative reports have been accurate, else there would be no need to clean up.  

My own conclusion from Amanda's actions and reactions as I have reported indicates to me she needs to be fired as soon as possible—for the kids sake, the end of this school year might be best.  And any action taken by Louisiana legislators in reaction to what I and New Louisiana has already disclosed and continue to disclose is done in an atmosphere where school librarians are hiding things from parents AND repeatedly deleting things being reported about their responses to my investigative efforts.  

When her book "That Librarian" finally gets published in August, I'll be reading it closely because I'm certain she'll have even more things to hide after I report on that book.  Only this time it will have been published on paper and it will be too late to sneak changes behind the scenes in violation of Louisiana law.

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