In a meeting held on Wednesday, the Sumner County Library Board voted 4-3 to dismiss Hendersonville Public Library director Allan Morales, just weeks after Christian actor, writer, and producer Kirk Cameron headlined a story hour event at the library in February.
Cameron’s story time event in Hendersonville was to promote his “As You Grow” book and part of his work with the conservative publishing company BRAVE Books to “win back Story Hour and stand up for truth and Biblical values.”
Following Cameron’s appearance at the library with special guests Missy Robertson from Duck Dynasty, women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines, and surfer and author Bethany Hamilton, Cameron noted his experience in Hendersonville consisted of “unkind pushback from one disgruntled librarian.”
In addition, recently on the “Unashamed” podcast, Robertson said that the library staff and Morales were disruptive before the event started as the team was filming promotional videos.
During the board meeting on Wednesday, Sumner County Mayor John Isbell said the negative reports from the event “left an indelible stain” on the community and admitted that the library made “mistakes” in the way the event was handled.
Additionally, the mayor called for yearly training for library staff to handle similar situations in the future and yearly policy reviews for the board.
However, one community member who spoke at the meeting disagreed with future training, saying, “I am confident that this drama is not going to go away, and it shouldn’t. The allegations made by the speakers are serious enough to warrant immediate staff terminations – as would happen in the corporate environment.”
“So, as to uphold meticulous standards of care to each and every member of this community, as a taxpayer, I do not want to spend money on retraining. I do not want excuses – I want activists to be removed from employment if this is how they are going to conduct themselves with my tax dollars. There are consequences for actions, and I want accountability for my tax dollars,” she added.
Another community member who spoke at the meeting called on the library staff to apologize to Cameron, Gaines, and Robertson for being disruptive.
Watch the video:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
