Behavior during book battle was out of line

A public row over the placement of a sex education book for gay teens in the Wasilla Public Library appears to have died down now that the book — along with about 300 other books classified as Young Adult nonfiction — has been moved to the adult stacks at the library.

However, there’s still a couple distressing issues that need to be addressed before the debate is shelved.

The first is about public process, which many people opposed to the placement of the book (“This Book is Gay,” by U.K. author James Dawson) near the children’s section argued was violated when a throng of people was barred from speaking at a reconsideration committee hearing convened to discuss the book’s fate. This argument is simply wrong, and the actions of those who decided to take it upon themselves to make this a public issue should be called out for what they were practicing — mob rule.

The library has a well-defined and — in our view — adequate policy in place for dealing with patrons’ concerns. When someone complains about a book, the library director takes those concerns under advisement and makes a decision. If the complaining party doesn’t agree with the decision — which happened in this case — the library director then convenes a three-person panel to review the matter.

That process was being followed until numerous people took it upon themselves to invade the committee’s meeting. These folks were under the mistaken impression that the meeting was open for public debate, and they reacted with anger when they found out it was not. That’s when things got ugly.

Instead of patiently waiting for the committee’s decision before going public, this group stormed a city council meeting, turning it into a forum for some ugly and inappropriate statements to be made before the council. This should not have happened.

Those opposed to the book’s placement and the library director’s decision should have waited until the committee made its decision before taking it to the council. By going beyond the committee and turning this into a public issue, they went outside the process and turned what appears to be an even-handed, well-intentioned policy into a charade. The system was never given a chance to work.

Perhaps more distressing than these premature actions were many of the words uttered both in public and on social media about library director K.J. Martin-Albright. For simply defending the book’s right to sit on her shelves, Martin-Albright was branded as a pedophile, and her professionalism was openly called into question.

The idea that homosexuality is akin to pedophilia has been widely discredited, and is frequently used by small-minded people to disparage gays and those who support them. That this language reared itself in public here in Wasilla is shameful.

We hope anyone who besmirched Martin-Albright’s reputation will apologize to her. The library director is a valuable and passionate asset to this community, and her tireless work on behalf of free speech and the citizens of Wasilla — especially our children — should be commended.