Colorado library district to pay fired librarian $250,000, create more inclusive policies in settlement of civil rights probe

A Weld County library district has agreed to pay $250,000 to a librarian it fired two years ago after she objected to the cancellation of programs for youth of color and LGBTQ teens, part of a legal settlement with the state that also requires the district to revise its policies to be more inclusive.

Librarian Brooky Parks’ attorney Iris Halpern called the outcome of the Colorado Civil Rights Division’s investigation of High Plains Library District a “groundbreaking settlement,” saying it is among the first public settlements in the nation amid a wave of conservative pushback against LGBTQ- and race-related library books and programming.

The Colorado Civil Rights Commission voted to accept the settlement at its monthly public meeting Friday.

“There is a massive move of these terminations happening to librarians and educators,” Halpern said. “We’re all hoping this gets people to step back and reframe the issue and think about what’s at stake here — fundamental civil rights and First Amendment rights and students’ rights to access information. These educators and librarians are just trying to accurately educate our youth so we don’t repeat the same mistakes of the past and we don’t devolve into a racist, homophobic society, and their livelihoods are getting impacted.”

The High Plains Library District did not respond to a request for comment.

The library district fired Parks, who worked at the Erie Community Library, in 2021 after she objected to the cancelation of the youth programs that she had planned.

The Colorado Civil Rights Division concluded in February that the High Plains Library District violated state anti-discrimination laws when firing Parks — a finding Parks’ attorney said was among the first in the country in which a state government concluded censorship targeted at LGBTQ youth or youth of color violated anti-discrimination laws.

“I think this is going to make an example out of them and serve as a warning to all libraries that there are consequences for retaliating and discriminating against people, and that you can be held accountable for discriminating against marginalized voices,” Parks told The Denver Post this week. “Libraries are supposed to serve all members of the community and not just the ones board members pick and choose to serve.”

In addition to the financial compensation, the district must create an eight-member committee responsible for reviewing library programs that are rejected at the branch level, according to the settlement agreement. The review committee must incorporate librarian feedback.

The library district must revisit and revise its program policies to better include a “full variety of community perspectives,” the agreement says.

Library programming decisions should be driven by community input and needs, according to the agreement, and be reflective of best practices defined by the Public Library Association Division of the American Library Association “rather than on possible public response.”

The district is supposed to “encourage programming that is inclusive and diverse,” the agreement said.

“This is setting up structural safeguards to make sure similar kinds of discrimination and First Amendment issues are not happening again in the future,” Halpern said.

Shortly before Parks was fired, the High Plains Library District Board of Trustees approved a policy stating library programs “should not be intended to persuade participants to a particular point of view” or be “intentionally inflammatory or polarizing.”

Parks’ supervisors pointed to the policies when telling her to rename the Erie Community Library’s “Read Woke” book club because the word “woke” was polarizing, and to cancel two programs she’d planned — a teen anti-racism workshop and a teen program focused on LGBTQ history.

Parks received a written warning for her “negative behavior” after opposing the renaming and cancellation of the programs, the state civil rights investigation found.

When Parks submitted a rebuttal to the warning, she was fired, according to the state investigation.

Attempts to censor programming or ban books at public libraries have proliferated across the country, led by politically conservative leaders who have taken particular issue with books and events focused on the LGBTQ community and race.

“I feel very proud that we were able to accomplish this, and I really do hope that it sets a precedent and encourages other librarians to come forward and speak out against these types of censorship so that libraries can do what they’re meant to do which is serve and value and represent everyone in the community,” Parks said.

To view the article in it’s entirety, visit www.denverpost.com.