Orland Park, IL. (ECWd) –
The Orland Park Public Library Board of Trustees has approved a settlement of $55,000.00 to dispose of Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings Act lawsuits.
In this settlement, the Library admitted no wrongdoing (even though they were wrong, but this is a typical settlement), however, during the course of, and in response to, the lawsuits the library has amended their public speaking policy and produced previously withheld public records.
If you read our previous articles, this suit is essentially the result of actions by the Board after it was discovered that child pornography had been viewed in the library, and the employee(s) did nothing to report the incident in a timely manner to the Police Department. The Board even denied it happened, at least until a written record of the event was produced in a public records request. A board member finally did admit that child pornography was viewed in the library, but they still refused to provide for filtering of internet access to prevent illegal content from being viewed on library computers.
This Board tried all kinds of tactics to prevent public records access and to prevent public comments at its meetings, to include holding an illegal special meeting on a public holiday. A timeline of events thru June 2014 is here and includes harassment by the library attorney, multiple inaccurate calls to local police, and civil rights violations.
While critics of filtering complain about their first amendment right to “data access”, the Supreme Court has already determined that there is no right to access pornography or child pornography in any public building, including libraries. The facts are that libraries are within their legal rights to filter access to this “data”, as librarians have been instructed to call it.
At the 20 minute mark in the below video is where the Board discusses and votes for the settlement.
Other news agencies that reported on this settlement: Chicago Tribune –
