By MARTIN ESPINOZA
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Friday, July 10, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, July 10, 2009 at 11:20 p.m.
Byron Hendrix, 49, casually viewed lewd images at the downtown Santa Rosa library on Friday afternoon, exercising what he described as his First Amendment rights.
As teens walked past the Internet station where he sat, Hendrix clicked through one escort ad after another, each displaying women in various positions, some less clothed than others.
Asked if he thought it was appropriate for children to be exposed to such material at the flagship branch of the Sonoma County Library, Hendrix’s answer was simple.
“No, but who told the kid to stand there and watch?” Hendrix said, adding that he was doing nothing illegal.
Children’s “inadvertent exposure to pornography” is among several issues investigated by the Sonoma County Grand Jury in a report released Friday called “Santa Rosa Central Library Revisited.”
The civil grand jury’s report recommends that the library install Internet filter software “as a means of protecting minors against pornography” and to relocate computer screens at the central library so they cannot be seen from the main aisle.
Library officials have long resisted such recommendations. On Friday, Library Director Sandra Cooper described the use of pornography filters as a “slippery slope in terms of First Amendment rights.”
“We’re looking at other ways to deal with the problem that don’t interfere with people’s access to information,” Cooper said.
The library report was one of four released on the Internet on Friday, rounding off the jury’s eight inquiries for the investigative body’s 2008-2009 term. The civil grand jury has no criminal authority. Its 19 volunteer members are appointed by the Superior Court and charged with reviewing complaints about the actions and policies of local government.
The report comes a year after the previous grand jury looked into behavior issues related to homeless patrons using the library as a de-facto shelter. That jury recommended measures such as banning loitering or prohibiting patrons from bringing bedrolls and bundles into the library. It also recommended that the library coordinate “random but regular” visits by Santa Rosa police officers.
Richard Klein, foreman of the 2008-2009 grand jury, said jurors decided to prepare a new report on the library this session because “the last one was rejected” by library commissioners. “This grand jury looked into it to see if there were any errors” in the previous investigation, he said.
While the earlier report focused primarily on problems with homeless patrons, the new one speaks more generally about behavioral problems at the library.
“The characterization of homeless people as a problem was not the way to do it,” Klein said. “What we chose to do this year was just ignore the characterization.”
The current report found the library’s updated 2008 Standards and Behavior policy “must be enforced to send a clear message to visitors that their conduct and interference with the rights of all users will not be tolerated.”
Cooper declined to comment Friday afternoon at length about the findings of the report because she had not yet read the document. But she did say that a library staff committee has been “working on enforcement issues” since the beginning of the year and that staff briefings are now taking place.
Margaret Lynch, chairwoman of the library commission, said she could not comment on the grand jury report until other members of the commission had a chance to view it, which along with the grand jury’s three other inquiries were to be included in today’s Press Democrat.
The lack of monitoring or filtering of pornographic material over the Internet was a major focus of the jury’s look at the central library.
On Friday, it was business as usual at facility on E Street in Santa Rosa. Parents and children searched for books or played games, adults worked online on resumes and a few haggard patrons struggled to keep awake over the pages of a reference book or magazine.
At Internet stations, some patrons viewed their Facebook sites while others conducted research on Wikipedia. One man visited an online gambling Web site.
Hendrix of Santa Rosa took a seat toward the back of the library after viewing the escort sites. He said that while it is not illegal for him to look at such material in the library, he would welcome measures to protect children from inadvertently walking past someone viewing pornography.
Bianca Stebbins, a Santa Rosa mother who visited the library Friday with her two daughters, said the issue is not a matter of free speech or censorship. Stebbins, a business and life coach, grew up in communist Romania, where “censorship was our middle name.”
Stebbins said that since the library does not carry “XXX” magazines, there’s little justification for allowing “XXX” Web sites.
“Filtering Web sites is not censorship,” Stebbins said. “My children have the right to come to the library and be safe in their intellectual development, which is what the library is here for.”
The other topics reported upon in the grand jury report are:
Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office investigations into officer-involved fatal incidents, which got high marks from the jury. However, District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua was criticized for taking too long to complete the reports.
Sonoma County Animal Care and Control, which was lauded for improving its programs and the treatment of animals.
The Sonoma County Board of Education, about which the jury made no recommendations but posed questions about school district consolidation and whether the superintendent of schools should be an appointed rather than elected position.
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213
or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090710/ARTICLES/907109911/1350?Title=Sonoma-County-grand-jury-urges-library-to-protect-kids-from-adult-Web-sites
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