FRONT ROYAL, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) – A group of Virginia parents are rejoicing after their campaign to remove porn aimed at children from their local library led to a suspension of most of the service’s annual county funding.
The Warren County Board of Supervisors withheld partial budget funding to Front Royal’s Samuel Public Library in a 4-1 vote on the evening of Tuesday June 13. This occurred a week after 250 local parents and the Clean Up Samuels Library group came to the five-member board’s public budget meeting to denounce the library’s collection of children’s books featuring pornographic content.
The board approved a“Version 2” resolution of the budget, motioned by supervisor Jay Butler, which appropriated only 25% of the original $1,024,000 library funding. The limited funds go toward only continuing operations. The rest of the budget was withheld until September while a deal is negotiated between the board and the library.
“The details of the board’s deal with the library are as of yet not entirely clear and should become more clear over the upcoming weeks and months,” the Clean Up Samuels group said in a press release on Wednesday June 14.
“From what we can tell, it’s not looking like the books will be removed entirely,” they said. “Rather, the board is negotiating to move them to the adult’s section, and to place restrictions on who can access the adult’s section without an adult.”
A local Republican Party leader who supports the concerned citizens mentioned the uncertainty of the vote’s eventual outcome but said the board could take possible accountability mechanisms in the interim.
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“My limited understanding of it is that they [the Board of Supervisors] will fund 25% of the library budget and then come back and revisit the rest in September,” John Massoud told LifeSiteNews. “We don’t know what that means.”
According to Massoud, the board could make it clear that no sexually explicit material should be anywhere in the children’s section, and then “have a citizens group that would monitor this to make sure that the library does not cheat. That would be the right thing to do, but until that happens, I am skeptical.”
The Warren County Democratic Committee Chairman Paul Miller issued a letter to the board on July 10 informing the supervisors that there could be a lawsuit if books are removed or relocated. He also said the committee has reached out to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for involvement in this issue. The ACLU is notoriously pro-LGBT and pro-abortion.
“I believe any effort to weaponize the budget on these grounds or to request that the books be removed or reshelved in a segregated section is an act of discrimination and very likely grounds for legal action,” Miller said.
Clean Up Samuels concluded their press release by welcoming the board’s move and reaffirmed their commitment to providing “a safe and enriching environment in the children’s section of our public libraries.”
“We thank the Board of Supervisors for their votes and willingness to listen seriously to our concerns,” they said. “We sincerely appreciate all the hard work they are doing for our community. With that said, our demands remain the same: cleanupsamuels.com/about.”
The organizers continue to encourage anyone to join their cause in support of children and family rights, and of the accountability of public institutions by signing up on their website.