Crawford County Library will foot the bill for lawsuit over segregation of LGBTQ+ children’s books

A West Arkansas public library system will pay its home county’s legal fees in a case the county lost last year over the location of certain LGBTQ+ materials in all five library branches.

The Crawford County Quorum Court voted unanimously Monday night at a special meeting to accept the library’s governing board’s offer to pay nearly $113,000, which U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks declared the defendants in the suit must pay.

Three mothers whose children are library patrons sued the Crawford County Library System in May 2023 over its segregation of children’s books with LGBTQ+ themes into “social sections.” This was a “compromise” in light of public outcry over the books being on the shelves at all, said Deidre Grzymala, the former library director who resigned in February 2023.

Plaintiffs Rebecka Virden, Nina Prater and Samantha Rowlett alleged in their suit that the “social sections” were based on “an extreme and malevolent view of the Bible” and violated the First Amendment.

The lawsuit’s five defendants are the county, the county judge, the quorum court, the library board and the library’s current director, Charlene McDonnough, who took over the role in January 2024.

U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor in September and ordered the library to return the segregated books to their original sections. The case was reassigned to Brooks in October.

The projected legal cost was around $118,000, but the cost was reduced by $5,000 after Brooks did not grant any motions from the plaintiffs or defendants after the ruling.

Crawford County and County Judge Chris Keith were also defendants in a separate lawsuit against the state over Act 372 of 2023, which would have given local elected officials the final say over whether to relocate challenged library materials some consider “obscene.” The 18 plaintiffs, including Crawford County Library patrons, cited county officials’ statements that Act 372 was a reason to maintain the “social sections.”

Brooks enjoined the challenged portions of Act 372, citing First Amendment violations, in December. The legal fees facing Crawford County defendants in both lawsuits now exceed $575,000, library board chairman Keith Pigg said.

Federal judge declares sections of Arkansas’ library obscenity law unconstitutional

Ongoing conflict

Before Brooks’ April 16 order for the defendants to foot the bill for the Crawford County-specific lawsuit, the quorum court and the library board had already squabbled for months over whether the county or the library was responsible for the payment. Members of the library board appointed by the current quorum court supported paying the bill with library operating funds.

On Wednesday, the board voted 3-1 to authorize the payment with library funds as a gesture of “good will” toward the quorum court, which took the board up on the offer Monday.

Pigg did not vote on the motion, and he urged the quorum court on Monday not to approve it.

Pigg is the only current board member remaining from before Crawford County citizens began complaining to the quorum court about LGBTQ+ books in the library in late 2022. Jeffrey and Tammi Hamby of Van Buren co-wrote a December 2022 letter to Crawford County pastors, saying LGBTQ+ content within children’s reach is “grooming a generation of children to feel this is normal and an accepted way of life.”

Pigg reminded the quorum court Monday that, while a majority of the library board approved the $113,000 payment, the board did not approve the use of roughly $40,000 in library funds to pay Grzymala’s severance package after she resigned. Both state law and the state Constitution prohibit local elected officials from using library funds without the library board’s consent.

Pigg said the library system’s services would suffer if it were forced to pay the legal fees.

In an interview Tuesday, McDonnough agreed, saying the library’s budget is “already set for 2025,” but that the system would likely have to reduce its hours at some branches and purchase fewer books in early 2026.

Another payment demand

At an April 18 library board meeting, member Tammi Hamby blamed the lawsuit on Grzymala and accused her of dishonesty. Grzymala’s attorney, Christopher Hooks, responded with an April 23 letter to the county seeking $100,000 in damages over the remarks. Hooks said Hamby violated the county’s “separation agreement” with Grzymala upon her resignation, which stated that Grzymala and the county would refrain from “criticizing, denigrating or disparaging each other.”

The quorum court appointed Hamby and two others to the library board in early 2023 to succeed three members who resigned en masse. All three board members now in those positions voted in favor of the library paying the legal fees stemmng from the lawsuit.

McDonnough told the Advocate in December that Crawford County residents had not been publicly decrying library content since Holmes’ September ruling against the county.

On Monday, some residents revived those complaints before the quorum court. Mike Rich blamed the lawsuit on “the LGBT group and their liberal allies” who “sued to force exposure” of objectionable content to minors.

“The library is now a compromised, dangerous institution,” Rich said.

Other citizens disputed this claim and urged the quorum court to reject the library board’s payment offer, saying the parties that lost the case should have to pay for it.

Rich said he hopes Crawford County will see a future ballot measure to defund the library. Several counties throughout the state have seen attempts to reduce the tax millage that funds their libraries, to varying degrees of success. Some of those counties have experienced public clashes over children’s access to LGBTQ+ books, including in Craighead County, which narrowly lost half its library tax funding in 2022. An effort to restore the millage failed last year.

McDonnough said she has faith in Crawford County libraries to stay afloat despite the turmoil.

“Our libraries are strong and resilient, and this is just a bump in the road that we will conquer,” McDonnough said.