Prolific Northshore book challenger withdraws complaints, seeks legislative remedy

By Piper Hutchinson
Contributing Writer

(lailluminator.com) — The leader of a far-right organization in St. Tammany has withdrawn the more than 150 book challenges her organization has submitted the parish’s library review board.

The complaints, primarily submitted by Connie Phillips and other conservative activists from her organization, the St. Tammany Parish Library Accountability Project, target books deemed inappropriate for children. Most of titles touch on LGBTQ+ themes.

“We are confident that our new Parish Council, Governor and state lawmakers will make the necessary changes to protect children from sexually explicit material in the children’s section,” Phillips wrote in an email to St. Tammany Parish Library Director Kelly LaRocca.

Phillips had submitted 160 challenges. The bulk of each complaint was copy and pasted, referencing portions of state law on providing obscene materials to minors. Legal experts have said the cited passage does not apply to libraries. Another 60 challenges were submitted by other activists. The library board has made decisions on 17 of the books and in each case has rejected the challenge.

“Your administration has failed to acknowledge that the library shelves sexually explicit material in the children’s section. The Board affirms each decision that you make,” Phillips wrote to a LaRocca. “It is clearly a flawed and biased process.”

In an email to members of the parish Library Board of Control, LaRocca said she intends to write to those who submitted the other 39 challenges to see if they wish to proceed with their complaints.

Phillips’ withdrawal of her complaints constitutes a major reduction of the board’s workload. The library board has worked through a small fraction of the over 220 challenges it has received since November 2022. At its current pace, it would take the board longer than three years to finish evaluating each title, LaRocca told the Illuminator in an interview earlier this year.

Phillips is a staunch ally of Gov.-elect Jeff Landry, who takes office Jan. 8. She and other conservative activists appeared alongside Landry at a press conference announcing proposed legislation to restrict what materials minors can check out from libraries. The bill was signed into law by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards but has failed to live up to the expectations of some far-right activists.

Another ally of Phillips, David Cougle, was elected to the St. Tammany Parish Council. Cougle has pushed for the council to get more involved in the library system. In 2022, he advocated for the council to create a citizens’ group with the power to decide what events, books and displays were in the library.

The Library Accountability Project’s decision to forsake the official review system marks a new chapter in the ongoing war over library content in Louisiana. In the upcoming regular legislative session, which begins March 11, legislators are permitted to file an unlimited number of bills. Many new legislators are even more conservative than their predecessors and could look to file such bills to galvanize their conservative base.

Phillips believes the new governor, legislature and parish council will be more sympathetic to her cause.

“We are confident reform will come in short order,” Phillips wrote.

This article originally published in the January 1, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.