Saline County Library Director is terminated after months-long community rift concerning books in children’s section

Several local residents are saying that Patricia “Patty” Hector was fired this morning from her position as Director at the Saline County Library. A statement from the Saline County Judge’s Office confirms it. Trevor Villines, Communications Director for Saline County, answered a text from MySaline, with the following statement: “Patty Hector is no longer employed by Saline County or the Saline County Library.”

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Villines went on to say that Leigh Espy has been named interim director. An immediate search is underway for a new library director.

This new development isn’t a surprise for people who have been following the county news since Spring 2023. That is the first time the Saline County Quorum Court officially addressed the matter of books that were deemed inappropriate for the children’s section of the Saline County Library’s shelves. A political group that is a splinter from the Republican party, brought the idea to the Quorum Court that they should do something about several books they found. This was a very similar effort to something that recently happened in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

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VIDEO: Saline County Quorum Court meeting April 17, 2023

In the April 2023 meeting (video above), Justice of the Peace Jim Whitley (R-Dist 10) sponsored a proposed Ordinance. This would require the library to move books from the children’s section if they are inappropriate for children. Along the way, there have been several public comments in Quorum Court meetings from county residents on both sides of the issue. There has been much discussion about it on social media. A group called Saline County Library Alliance (SCLA) formed to defend the library.

The original group that approached the quorum court – Saline County Republican Women (SCRW) – began blitzing the public with images from the books. Among the many images were gay parents from one book, a black grandfather teaching his grandchild about racism in another, and also some “how-to” sex books and one that was fictional but included instruction about sex acts. Some of the posts with images were attempted by SCRW on the MySaline Facebook group, but Facebook itself took the posts down.

These are not all the books that were on the SCRW list, but it’s a post from Spring 2023 with several. It’s posted here as a screenshot instead of an embed, in case their post is taken down.

SCRW then created a website to host the images of the books they deem inappropriate. Then they rented a billboard on the side of Interstate 30 in Benton to advertise the website. One billboard message read “Warning: X-RATED Library Books SalineLibrary.com” Another message called for the Library Director’s job. “Director Hector MUST GO.”

Library board members began resigning from their position. Library employees confided that they were afraid for their family, home and property. The Saline County Judge and Quorum Court stayed focused on the issued of keeping inappropriate books out of easy access to children. Judge Matt Brumley, JP Rick Bellinger, JP Clint Chism and others stated publicly that they did not want to close the Library, defund the Library or ban any books. But they wanted the books to move to a section where they weren’t easily accessible to children. It was never said publicly which books were considered inappropriate or who would decide if they were.

Meanwhile, Library Director Hector stated that she would not move any books. “Moving books is banning books,” Hector stated several times in interviews.

The County Judge and Quorum Court brought it to a vote to decide if the SCL hiring and firing decisions should be under the direct authority of the Saline County Judge. An ordinance was passed in the August 2023 Quorum Court meeting to make it so. Judge Brumley stated that he would continue to work with Ms. Hector on the issue of inappropriate books. It has been several weeks and we heard this morning that Ms. Hector was fired and they are looking for a replacement. View the previous articles and videos on this topic below.

The SCLA issued a news release on the matter of Ms. Hector losing her job on Monday. The statement included a note that the SCLA is working on a ballot initiative to “to strip the Quorum Court and County Judge of the ill-gotten powers they have granted themselves…”

The SCRW group has not yet made a public statement about Hector’s dismissal.