May 20 Commissioner Meeting Public Speakers

At the May 20, 2025, Columbia County Board of Commissioners meeting, three members of the public spoke about the public library: Priscilla Bence, myself, and Robert Heideman. Priscilla Bence has submitted the majority of book challenges in Columbia County and frequently makes public comments. She is also an advocate for anti-library policies through her involvement with Georgians for Responsible Libraries. Robert Heideman is the husband of Brenda Heideman, who often speaks at Columbia County Library Advisory Board (CCLAB) meetings. Along with Priscilla Bence and CCLAB Chairman David Davis, Brenda has been photographed in Atlanta advocating for SB74—the legislation that seeks to criminalize librarians. I wrote about the political activities of Mr. Davis in March.

For reference, I’ve included a photo below.

What follows is the transcription of each speaker’s comments so you can review them and form your own perspective.

Priscilla Bence:

I’m coming here to talk about the library situation just… I haven’t been here for about a year and a half. I want to thank you. This is not a complaint session at all. I want to thank you for the guidelines for the library board. At least since January 2024, for the new Columbia County Board for putting a spotlight on the problem and its SB74 at the state level if they follow through with the example you’ve set. Several books have been moved over to the adult section so there’s progress. The reason I came to you tonight is because a lot of the Young Adult books have pornography or LGBTQ indoctrination and the whole young adult teen room which is downstairs. It’s about 20x20 foot room. 100% of them are YA books. It’s called the teen room for a reason. That’s where the teenagers go so I’m requesting that you consider having all the adult literature materials downstairs and all the children and teen literature upstairs. That would just solve a world of problems. The problem now is there’s so much YA literature coming in that the challenge process is going like this (raised arm to look somewhat flat) but you got YA literature going like this (showing a big increase with arm.) We had 123 books identified in the YA around a year ago and there's 239 right now. The growth is too fast for the public or the Librarians or anybody for the board or anybody to have a solution, unless we move the adult material downstairs and the teen and children material upstairs. That would just solve 80% of the problem. I recently read several classics trying to catch up from what I never did and the classics are actually catalogued in the adult section. The classics are all cataloged and shelved in the adult section and we could really use them up in the middle ground. There’s a new middle ground section upstairs. It has about 300 books. That’s for age 10-14 and then you really don’t have any books from 15-17 when we could plus them is to get some classics or some abridged classics or some adapted classics for the age. So we can improve the book collection upstairs. We can move the large print adult books downstairs. It’s a no-brainer. It’s common sense and move all of the young adult books out of the teen room into the adult section which is something that I’ve been kinda saying. It just makes sense because young adult is actually adult and the teenagers 12 and 13 14 year olds is who I see there when I go there and young we can make that room a lot of different things. Could be reference, DVDS, you know you could use that room for large print adult books. I’m just asking for upstairs to be children/teen, downstairs to be adult. That would solve a lot of problems. Do y’all have any questions?

Karin Parham

At the last meeting, Commissioner Allen and I had a disagreement about the legality of the shelving guidelines. I want to be clear — I’m not a lawyer but every attorney I’ve spoken with has expressed concern about the constitutionality of these guidelines.

It occurred to me afterward that Commissioner Allen wasn’t yet in office when legal opinions were sent to the Regional Board and the commissioners. So tonight, I’ve brought packets of those letters in case you haven’t seen them or would like a refresher. That said, I don’t want to debate the legal merits of those letters — I’m not qualified to. Which raises an important question: Why are we — non-lawyers — debating legal issues in the first place?

Before the Regional Board’s vote in December, I reached out to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Driver to request Mr. Driver’s presence at the November County Library Board meeting to provide legal insight. I never received a response. Unfortunately, that’s been a trend for my communications with this county. However, I did find Mr. Driver’s public statement from the August 15, 2023, Commissioners meeting — in response to a request to move LGBTQ+ books to the adult section. At that time, the rhetoric centered on “LGBTQ propaganda,” not “obscenity.” He said:

“So what they’re requesting would be considered content-based restriction. It’s restriction based on the content of the book — here, the homosexual nature of the books. This has been addressed by courts… There has been no case I’ve found in favor of being able to do this. In fact, there’s a court case — almost exactly on point — that says you can’t. The reason being, with First Amendment cases, if you restrict based on content itself, you’re under strict scrutiny — and pretty much just lose every time if you’re a government entity.”

So why, then — just a year later — did this body move forward with a content-based shelving policy without even seeking an updated legal opinion from Mr. Driver? He’s a reputable attorney from a respected firm who is paid with taxpayer dollars to advise this board. At best, this policy is legally risky. It’s certainly not fiscally conservative to pursue something courts have consistently struck down — especially when you know it exposes the library system to legal challenges that will have to be paid for with taxpayer money.

We’ve now dragged the entire Region into this — and they didn’t want the liability. The Region sought its own legal counsel and held extended executive sessions — I know, because I waited outside in the hallway during those meetings. And according to Mr. Johnson’s media comments, Columbia County wants to withdraw from the Region because the Region might change the guidelines. That possibility was never mentioned publicly at any of the regional meetings — so it must have been discussed behind closed doors, during executive sessions, while receiving legal advice.

I also want to respond to a comment made at the last meeting — that perhaps I’m overusing the word censorship. But censorship is the suppression of ideas. When a government entity moves books written for children or teens out of the sections specifically designed for them and into a higher age category or the adult section, it’s making a decision about which ideas are easily accessible — and which are not. That is censorship.

And let’s not forget: no child under 12 is allowed in the public library without an adult present. With freedom comes responsibility — and every parent should be responsible for monitoring their own child’s book selections. Every family has the right to decide what’s appropriate for their child. That decision should not be made unilaterally by government or library officials based on political or religious worldviews.

And if we want to talk about the overuse of certain terms, let’s start with obscenity. That word has a very narrow legal definition. Porn — which gets thrown around constantly — has no legal definition at all. Some people talk like there’s a Hustler magazine sitting in the picture book section — and that’s simply not true. We’ve even seen misleading claims about where certain books are shelved, in order to push that narrative. And in many cases, the simple presence of an LGBTQ character is equated with obscenity or so-called “grooming” by book challengers. This kind of rhetoric is harmful — not just to our LGBTQ+ families and neighbors — but at this point, it’s psychologically abusive to library staff.

In closing, I urge you to reconsider the path you’ve put our county on. It’s legally risky, fiscally irresponsible, insulting to parents and incredibly divisive. Thank you for your time.

Robert Heideman

First, I would like to thank the Board of Commissioners for making Columbia County a very desirable and sought after county that people want to live. It seems that people move out of an area do so because they have to live with the consequences of their vote. The area has become unsafe, not economically feasible, increasing taxes, etc. They moved to a better area and want to institute the ame practices in their new community that were present in the community that they had just left.

This Board, and I know the library board because I’ve attended their meetings, has been inundated with pressure in regards to reshelving of books to a more age-appropriate area. Many parents do not want their children exposed to subject material dealing with LGBTQ issues or gay issues hetero or homosexual graphics and content. Those who are pushing to maintain this material within the reach of children in the library go into great detail on the content, even making the comments - you need to read the whole book. No I don’t. Although many of us not familiar with the exact makeup of the material, to paraphrase US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in 1964 in the Jacob Ellis v. Ohio “I may not be able to define pornography but I know it when I see it.”

Those that have brought this issue front and center will continue to push until they get their way. I’ve heard them say that it is a First Amendment right - that the material doesn’t meet the threshold for pornography by certain Georgia statutes or laws and what the library should and the library should represent all citizens of the county. On the surface, this may sound correct but it is common sense and morally wrong to have children exposed to graphic and descriptive sexual material. Societies put guardrails in place to protect children - cannot see certain movies, buy alcohol or cigarettes, enter into contracts. They must authenticate that they are 18 on a porn site because Society has determined that certain materials must be age-appropriate. The guidelines at the library where books should be placed is a guardrail that you have put in place. How and where did this issue arise and why is it pushed so hard?

Those who oppose guidelines say that shelving of these books in the children’s area meet the guidelines of the American Library Association. Upon taking over as the ALA President in 2023 Emily Drabinski tweeted that she was a self-proclaimed Marxist lesbian. Why would someone who had assumed a leadership role make this remark and by proxy it could be interpreted to represent that the organization as a whole is Marxist. Upon taking office she said she wants to make sure that the LGBTQ community sees themselves reflected in the books on the library's shelves. Emily Drabinski’s tweet calling herself a Marxist lesbian also has drawn criticism and set the tone for the ideology of the ALA. Those who want these books to be in reach within children they quote support and they want to use the ALA as a standard guideline for our libraries. Marxist advocate for the Revolutionary overthrow of capitalist systems. There has never in the history of mankind been a Marxist society that has flourished and prospered. Just the fact that she made these remarks should be a warning sign that she advocates all that Marxism represents. On the political spectrum, the only political ideology to the left of Marxism is Communism. After her comments, the State libraries in Montana, Missouri and Texas announced that they are leaving the ALA. Lawmakers in 9 other States. Arizona, Georgia, which passed State Bill 390 in February 2024 banning private or public funds for the ALA. Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming are demanding similar action. Part of the reason is the ALA’s defense of disputed books, many of which have LGBTQ themes geared for children.

I want to thank you very much on behalf of all the parents who don’t want this material within their reach or within the reach of their children in the library and I encourage you to protect the children of Columbia County and maintain the guardrail that you put in place. I also want to thank you again for making Columbia County a community that continues to thrive and remain a desirable location where people want to live, work and raise their children. God bless you. God bless Columbia County and God bless America. Thank You.

A video of the meeting is also available, with timestamps noted for each speaker:

• Priscilla Bence begins at 57:50

• My comments begin at 1:02:22

• Robert Heideman begins at 1:07:25