Michigan librarian pushes back against years of harassment from Moms for Liberty adherent

After five years of public name-calling, being called a “smut peddler” and a “pedophile” by a woman from a far-right group advocating book bans, West Michigan librarian Christine Beachler is finally pushing back.

Beachler recently filed a civil lawsuit against the woman, Stefanie Boone, who is associated with the group Moms for Liberty, which specifically advocates against school curricula involving LGBTQ+ content and themes.

The harassment Beachler experienced, and the back-and-forth legal battle that is now playing out as a result, was just one more instance of Michigan libraries and librarians facing attacks from right-wing groups dedicated to excising LGBTQ+ related materials from their shelves.

Earlier this week, Michigan Advance highlighted additional efforts in Hartland and in Lapeer to sequester, move or label materials conservative library board members have deemed inappropriate for children – and many with LGBTQ+ characters or content.

But for Beachler, the legal fight she’s facing in Lowell is personal.

In an interview with Michigan Advance, Beachler, who has held her position as a librarian for more than 20 years, said Boone has waged a relentless “smear campaign” against her, and that her efforts to challenge books in Lowell Area Schools have not been in good faith nor in the benefit of any child attending the district.

Parents have several options to work with the district to ensure they have oversight over the books their children read, Beachler said. There are opportunities to challenge books in the library, a path to require permission to check out books, and other options to direct students away from consuming media their parents might disagree with.

But Boone’s actions have gone beyond that, as she has read excerpts from books out of context at school board meetings, Beachler said, and posted floods of untrue statements about her on Facebook saying she provides pornography to minors, all culminating in Beachler filing a civil lawsuit against Boone on May 13.

“It’s just really hard to talk about. That’s why I’ve actually been working from home a lot. … I mean being called a groomer, being called a pedophile, I was called a whore, a smut peddler,” Beachler said. “I’ve been an educator for 37 years and how can somebody call somebody that name that has invested their life in working with kids? It’s very hurtful and obviously untrue.”

Last June, Boone filed her own lawsuit against Beachler, as well as the school district and several school employees for what she says are violations of her parental rights to challenge indoctrination of students.

Boone is being represented by former Republican Michigan attorney general candidate and attorney Matt DePerno, who is currently facing felony charges for reported mishandling of voting equipment after the 2020 election.

“[The] defendants have continued to groom children by fostering relationships that include secrecy, undue influence, control, and pushing personal boundaries,” Boone said in her lawsuit against Beachler. “[The] defendants have attempted to and have desensitized children to DEI, SEL, sex, social justice issues, alternate sex and gender ideologies, and liberal political ideology, and through manipulative behavior by showing them pornography or discussing sexual topics with them, and have introduced the idea of sexual contact.”

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Boone did not return a request for comment at the time of this story’s publication.

The years of false statements and accusations published on Facebook posts and through public comments at school board meetings came to a fever pitch in February. Beachler said Boone interrupted a tour Beachler alongside two students of a large-scale renovation of a school library to ask where the mature section was. Beachler’s lawsuit said Boone filmed the interaction, posting the video with the caption “Which way to the PORN section please?”, which was reposted by individuals with large social media followings like former Republican gubernatorial candidate Garrett Soldano.

“I put up with it for five years. I sent a cease and desist order and asked her to stop. It’s only amplified. It’s only gotten worse, to the point where I was getting threats,” Beachler said. “Half of my hair fell out and I’ve broken several of my teeth from grinding my teeth and I couldn’t even work for quite a while because I just couldn’t come here without even crying.”

In the nearly four decades Beachler has worked in education, Beachler said never before has there been such disrespect and dishonesty when it comes to criticisms of educators. And as Michigan faces a teacher shortage in schools that are already struggling to catch kids up on learning losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, Beachler said misinformation campaigns about the books kids have access to at school take time away from the learning experience.

Anyone has the right to talk about how much they disapprove of a book, Beachler said, and Boone can post all she wants on Facebook about how she hates what’s in the school library. That’s her First Amendment right, Beachler noted. But that’s not what Boone’s rhetoric or lawsuit is about, she added: it’s about destroying trust in public schools at any cost.

Lowell is a tight-knit small town community, which Beachler said is filled with “very wonderful people” who lean conservatively, but in general don’t expect people to conform to their own beliefs. There have been, however, some members of the Lowell community that believed what Boone was selling them, especially grandparents, Beachler said.

Parental Guidance: A new front emerges in battle between far-right, LGBTQ+ themed books

Some of the books that were being brought to their attention, with passages read out of context, aren’t even in the school library, Beachler said. And when Boone posted her video in February, Beachler said there was a switch in the community who did not support the calls for violence against her.

Several members from the community stood up during the packed March 10 Lowell Area Schools Board of Education meeting following Boone’s video posting, who extolled their disgust for the mistreatment of the librarian with calls for civility in conversations about books.

“So much of this is being done … straight from the Moms for Liberty people. It has been done from a Christian movement, and the behavior and the way that they have treated me is so anti-Christ, it’s been so the opposite of how a Christian person would treat somebody, with respect and truth,” Beachler said. “We can have a difference of opinion. That’s absolutely fine, and you have the right to make those decisions for your children, but again, to be mean-spirited and say untrue things about a person and call them … horrific names has been incredibly hurtful to me and to my family.”