Effect of Leaving Even One Library Computer Unfiltered; Canton Man Charged with Burglary of Library

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Teen Library Volunteer Raped in Library Bathroom

"Library Sexual Assault Trial Starts Tuesday," by Dayna Worchel, Tyler Morning Telegraph, 2 March 2011:

Library Sexual Assault Trial Starts Tuesday

DAYNA WORCHEL
Staff Writer

The 17-year-old who said she was sexually assaulted last summer in the men's restroom of the Troup Municipal Library told a Smith County jury on Tuesday that following a Tyler man there at his request "was not a smart thing to do."

Brandon Deonteri Prestidge, 25, who is charged with sexual assault of a child under 16, is accused of fondling and then raping the young girl, who was 16 at the time, after he asked her to follow him into the restroom.  The sexual assault allegedly happened inside of a locked stall where the girl said Prestidge, who was then 23, took her after he heard a noise outside of the restroom door.

....

The teenager, who was volunteering at the library on July 31, described the sexual assault in detail to the jury, saying she knew that what was happening to her was "inappropriate" and "wrong" and that she did not want the assault to happen.

After the incident, the girl testified that she went into the women's restroom to clean herself and left the library without telling anyone there what happened.

....

Under cross examination, Haley asked the girl why she did not tell anyone at the library or the police what had happened to her.

"I wasn't thinking about that, I just wanted to get away," she responded.

....

The girl said she knew it was wrong, but she didn't know why she didn't tell Prestidge to stop.  "When I left the men's room, I felt like it was my fault," she testified.

....

I am still investigating whether this library rape is related to library policy and/or computer usage.  The media reports I have seen make no mention one way or another.  And the library's web site is sparse.  Only the following is of possible relevance:  "The library will not restrict a patron's access to library materials due to age."  That is a sure sign the library follows American Library Association [ALA] diktat and may be an anything-goes library, though it does not have to be that way.

In the meantime, the above story caught my attention, and I am aware of potentially significant background information that I simply cannot source at the moment, so I will not publish it now.

I am certain the ALA will do absolutely nothing to assist the teenage library volunteer rape victim or others similarly situated.  Neither will it even bother to write about it anywhere.  The ALA has not responded to a call to start tracking library crime—tracking parents who try to keep children from inappropriate material is what's important to the ALA.  See "Banned Books Week Versus Library Crime; Call for the ALA to Track Library Crime," 17 August 2009. 

And let Texas try to correct an imbalance in public education, then suddenly the ALA comes alive, even using plagiarism to get involved in a non-library matter.  See "ALA Double Standard on Accuracy in Texas State Board of Education Proposal on School Book Content; ALA President Plagiarizes to Promote Matter Outside ALA Purview," 18 May 2010.

In contrast, a teen library volunteer raped in a library bathroom?  ALA says: "Yawn."  Please.  The ALA even tried to cover up another library child rape.  See, "ALA Whitewashes Rape and Blames Child; Removes Discussion of ALA's Possible Culpability for Rape," 4 April 2009. 

Troup, Texas?  You are on your own.

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Boy Sexually Assaulted in Library Bathroom by Child P0rn Viewer

Houston Public Library
Bathroom Stall Where
6 Year Old Boy was
Sexually Assaulted

It has happened again.  A criminal viewing child p0rnography on a public library computer followed boys into a library's bathroom and sexually assaulted one.  He had somehow bypassed the Internet filters (and that should be investigated). 

This was in the Freed-Montrose Neighborhood Library of the Houston Public Library, Houston, TX.  Read the news and watch the videos for yourselves.  I'm too sickened to want to reprint it here.  I see this too often doing what I do.

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Sex in Public Library Bathrooms Results in Nation's First Full-Time Psychiatric Social Worker Stationed in a Public Library

Sex in public library bathrooms. Can you believe this?  Read it yourself in "Library Adds Social Worker to Assist Homeless," by Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 11 January 2010:

The bathrooms often have proved downright scary, with people doing drugs, bathing in the sinks and having sex in the stalls. .... But the library has, well, begun to turn the page on the problem by hiring what is believed to be the country's first full-time psychiatric social worker stationed in a public library.

The country's first full-time psychiatric social worker.  Look, they had to hire someone just to watch the bathrooms:

Melvin Morris recently became the first one hired by the library to work up to 20 hours a week for $12 an hour monitoring the restrooms to make sure they're clean and safe.  .... 

The bathrooms, one person wrote, "have changed in a good way."

Well, that's a relief, so to speak.  Two workers hired just to patrol for library crimes, as well as for laudable goals. 

San Francisco libraries do not filter the Internet.  Might this refusal to filter have anything to do with the crime in the library?  Might filters go a long way toward reducing the need for two employees patrolling for crime?  This looks relevant from See For Yourself:

San Francisco Bay Area, CA:  "Porn, Sex Crimes At Libraries; I-Team Investigation," KGO, 29 Nov 2006,  "[T]he Martin Luther King Library has a problem with pornography.  They have no rule against viewing photographs or full-screen sex videos from Internet sites, even with children nearby.  Chief librarian Jane Light says it's a matter of free speech.  ....  ABC7's Dan Noyes: 'I've seen the [privacy] screens and I see how they work and the stuff is visible from behind.  You can see everything.' Jane Light...: 'So you can avert your eyes.'  ....  San Jose's police blotter over the past year lists several arrests for child porn at the library, at least ten cases of child molestation or other sex crimes involving kids and several cases of men viewing porn and performing a lewd act, right at the terminal.  ....  Sgt. John Laws, San Jose library police: 'It showed him sitting at the computer terminal and ... masturbating.'  ....  Marcia Stacke, Child Quest International: 'You know, sometimes I wonder if we're just too afraid to be, I don't know, sued in this country.  We've got to step out and protect our kids.  Enough is enough.'"

Here are many more public library bathroom stories.

H/T to LISNews.org that gave a H/T to Change.org.  Could you imagine if someone now gives a H/T to SafeLibraries.org?

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Library Bathroom Crime Info Sought - Please Help and Comment

Please help me uncover cases of child rape or child molestation in public library bathrooms. I would like to write a scholarly work on this issue, and I would like it to be as informative and accurate as possible. Please comment below with any information you may know. Please include specific URLs or specific citations. If any written works already exist on the subject, I would like to know about them too (example).

Note, I am a member of the American Library Association [ALA]. This work will not be a vehicle for any undue criticism of the ALA. I seek assistance from anyone and everyone, including ALA members, including those ALA leaders about whom I have been critical. It is my intention that this work be as factual and therefore as useful as possible. People may disagree with my conclusions, but my facts should be spot on.

I am currently aware of relevant incidents in Philadelphia, PA; Brooklyn, NY; Des Moines, IA, and the recent one in St. Paul, MN. Are there others? (Might this query help, or this one?)

Please help all you can, and please provide the information in the comments section below so everyone may benefit.

Thank you.