A Weld County librarian says she was fired after speaking out when LGBTQ+, youth of color programming got cancelled

By Dan England

When Brooky Parks thought about programming for the Erie Community Library, she referred to her role as a mother of two teens as much as her job as Teen Librarian. 

Her kids, Madeline, now 18, and Jack, who will turn 16 very soon (he has a countdown on a board in their Thornton home), provided most of the inspiration for the talks she offered. She didn’t necessarily program the calendar specifically for them, but living life with them, what she calls the greatest challenge of her 47 years, was enough: She shares custody of Jack with their father, and Madeline chose to live with him because getting along with Mom was difficult, Brooky admits, and she didn’t need distractions because she was working hard to get a high school diploma. 

“I know the struggles they face on a daily basis,” Parks said, and the statement makes her cry. “My teens are no exception.”

Parks on Friday filed complaints with the Colorado Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission over the High Plains Library District and its termination of her after more than two years working at Erie. Parks is now either a solitary figure or a martyr, depending on who you talk to, in an emotional battle that really is more of a question about the role of the High Plains Library District and what it should offer.

It all started on Nov. 15, when the board approved changes to their programming policy. Parks said the administration used that policy to cancel two of her programs and disrupt a reading group. She was fired a month later for what she believes was retaliation for sending out letters to the community and urging action.

The library denies this, saying that they intended to review the programs, not cancel them, and that point is now relegated to a he said/she said argument. The library also had no comment about Parks’ termination, calling it “an internal HR matter,” which is common in personnel matters in any organization or business. 

But the library does not deny that a new policy exists now, and that’s why the question itself exists. 

Brooky Parks

Here they the changes: 

• “Program topics should reflect community interests and should not be intended to persuade participants to a particular point of view.” 

• “While controversy is not avoided, the District does not present programs that are intentionally inflammatory or polarizing in the community.” 

Parks said the library used these policies to cancel a presentation on LGBTQ+ teens and another on racism. An administrator informed her of the change two days after the policy was approved by the board. The administrator also told her that they wanted to change the name of her book club. 

Parks is not a weeper. She was calm in an interview while discussing her termination. She didn’t cry even discussing how the library wrote her up for incidents that weren’t brought up with her until her performance review and then fired her for them a day after she gave a written response.

When she talks about “her teens,” however — not just her own kids, but the ones she served at the library — the tears come right away.

“I had a lot of relationships with them,” she said. “They’re really great kids, and those resources are a huge benefit to them.”

• • • 

Matthew Hortt, the library district’s executive director, in a December meeting with the board that governs seven of the 13 branch libraries, including Greeley, indicated he believes the new policy reflects the library district’s role.

“The role of a library is to provide information, not to be an advocate on one side or another,” Hortt said.

Hortt said in the board meeting that the programs Parks wanted to bring would teach someone to be an advocate for something. Parks doesn’t hide this in a description of a program she planned to bring for Pride Month in June from Boulder County OASOS: “OASOS…will present about LGBTQ+ history and resilience, with an emphasis on youth resilience…Additionally, we will go into ways to take action in your own community and how to be a better ally to the LGBTQ+ in your life.”

However, Parks said, that argument stumbles a bit regarding her other program by Her Flowers that she would have brought in January: “Their Flowers is a virtual workshop open to teens of all gender orientations. Through meaningful conversation and personal reflection, participants will learn about racism, power, privilege, oppression, and justice in the U.S. Participants will leave with increased confidence to discuss social justice issues and incorporate anti-racism in their daily lives.”

This is why the policy is so dangerous, Parks said. It could be used to cancel any program in the district. Others share her concerns, including Dodie Ownes, the co-chair of the Colorado Association of Libraries’ Intellectual Freedom Committee and a librarian with Denver Public Library. Ownes’ opinion is her own: The state board is working on a general statement about first amendment rights and will release one soon. 

“Who decides what is intentionally inflammatory?” Ownes said. “There’s no process there. It’s a really bad policy.”

But libraries are also becoming more of a “political football,” Hortt said in a video message to staff, and have been damaged as a result, or drawn unwanted attention or crowds because of what they present. Libraries are supposed to be places of information, not protest, he said.

“We’re not censoring items, materials or programs,” he said to the board in December. “We’re trying to adapt them into that programming policy.” 

Two other actions bothered Parks: The library canceled a children’s program at her branch because the description had the words “social justice” in it, and she was told to rename a teen book club she started and called the “Read Woke Book Club.” She named it that, she said, because many other libraries across the country called it that as well, based off the national ReadWoke program that encourages people to read a book a month about a marginalized person or community, which had a wide range, including LGBTQ+, those with mental health struggles and people of color. The administration or the board, she said, didn’t have a problem with books she assigned: They just didn’t like the word “Woke,” a slang phrase for those sensitive to social justice issues (and to be fair, some would say too sensitive). 

High Plains agrees with Parks on this point: They don’t like the word “Woke.’” Parks’ book club had a history of low attendance, and given that as well as a couple complaints they received from the public about it, the administration wanted to rename it in case the name was keeping teens (or anyone else for that matter) from joining. 

“Renaming was part of that effort to improve participation,” said James Melena, spokesman for the High Plains Library District. 

• • • 

Probably the biggest point of contention between what the library is saying and what Parks believes is whether the programs she planned were canceled or paused to be reviewed. It’s a small but important point, as it speaks to HPLD’s overall mission, culture, and whether Parks overreacted to the library’s review process or she was legitimately upset over her programs being canceled. 

Parks said she was just doing the same kind of talks that had already taken place under her old branch manager. She had a talk about sexual assault awareness for teens last fall and the manager was supportive of it. More than 20 people, including parents and teens, attended the talk.

“The organization asked me how I got all those people out to listen,” she said. “I was just working hard to get the word out.”

Parks did her best, she said, not to hide anything. Her previous branch manager was aware of what she had planned, as Parks had regular one-on-one meetings with her about programming, either to discuss presentations already booked or those she hoped to book. Both the anti-racism workshop and the LBGTQ+ presentation fit under what she called the Community Awareness Training program. She hoped to include workshops this year on suicide prevention, mental health and teen dating violence and serve pizza during Q&A sessions after they took place, which would include hard questions to balance out the presentations.

But High Plains Library officials said Parks didn’t undergo a formal review process that all programming goes through, Melena said. 

“These programs were never approved to begin with because they never went through our established approval process,” he said. “When we were alerted to this, we began the process to correct it.”

But Parks said she did meet with the associate director filling in for Parks’ branch manager after she left for a position in another library district. This meeting took place in late October, before the board approved the policy. Parks told her temporary supervisor about the Community Awareness Training program that would include those presentations. She also said she hoped to expand it for 2023. Parks admits she didn’t have the final descriptions of the presentations, but she did explain the topics to her. The administrator didn’t express concerns about those programs until two days after the board approved the policy. That’s when Parks was told to cancel her presentations. 

“Brooky was never offered the option to rework the programs,” said Parks’ attorney, Iris Halpern. “She was only told to cancel them.” 

No other programs at other branches were canceled, Melena said, and this is why library officials said this was an isolated incident with one staff member at one branch. 

But others disagree with Melena. They say what happened to Parks was the culmination of a culture shift that’s been going on for a few years. 

• • • 

Margarita Shawcross felt that shift, she said, when a Drag Queen Story Hour came to the Clearview Library District in Windsor in January 2019. The presentation, which was, indeed, drag queens reading stories to kids, was popular but controversial, as are similar presentations nationwide. 

Soon after, Shawcross, a librarian for the High Plains Library District, wanted to bring a social justice book program. She based it off a similar program in place at the Denver Public Library. The program had nothing to do with drag queens, but she said the attention it got alerted the board or the administration to sensitive topics. 

“I was told to modify my program,” Shawcross said, “and it ended up being different than what I had proposed.” 

This was shocking to her, she said, because librarians across the country were typically given freedom  to develop programming that fit the needs and culture of their community. This was the first time in her career she was told to modify a program. Librarians, she said, do more than stack books: They nearly always have Master’s degrees and are expected to provide “social or technical programming,” according to a simple definition in Wikipedia. 

Instead, the culture of the library turned toxic, she said. She does not know if that was a result of the library board, viewed as conservative by those both inside and outside the district, she said, or the administration, and she doesn’t want to place blame on anyone. What she felt, she said, was a shift in the mission: The policy change that came two years later was more of an affirmation of what she’d felt two years before it was approved.

“A library is a place where you are an equalizer for all,” she said, “and it didn’t feel that way any longer. My programming was affected. There were people who were asked to do things they didn’t feel comfortable with. It was a joy to come to work every day when it came to my patrons, but when it came to the administration, I was physically sick about it.” 

She left in August that year, she said, to take another job as a librarian. Nearly a half-dozen employees who she knows of soon followed.

“There have been many of us,” Shawcross said. 

Shawcross said she wanted to remain quiet, as she isn’t the type to put herself out front. 

“But when I saw the policy and what happened to Brooky Parks, I couldn’t sit here any longer,” she said. 

The library district doesn’t like the assertions that they want to shut down free thought, or that they aren’t representative of all people, Melena said, and he lists examples such as an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, a collection diversity audit and diverse programming such as Rainbow Storytime in partnership with PFLAG, a group that unites those who identify as LBTGQ. 

High Plains District created a strategic plan in 2019 that runs into 2024 and worked on updating its procedures and policies in an effort to win the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. The policy underwent two reviews by a library managers group and a committee of the board before the main library board approved it in November. The board saw it as a way to review programs based on budget dollars and space.

“These decisions are not made based on content,” the district wrote in an official statement. “Over the years, we have received challenges and reconsideration requests and have maintained our collection. We value having a robust collection that presents information from various points of view.”

Programming that is too one-sided, officials believe, doesn’t help “bring people from diverse viewpoints together to discuss, learn and grow together,” the statement read. 

“These ideas and issues have driven our programming decisions throughout the years,” the statement read. “As the overall review of policy was conducted, it became apparent that the evolution of our programming did not always align with our goals.”

• • • 

When public institutions such as libraries refuse to host programs that address uncomfortable subjects, they lose a lot more than programming, said Jennifer Nelson of Erie. Nelson has a blended family of eight kids with her wife, Islen. Representation, Nelson said, is important. 

“My own kids have a lot to grapple with, trying to figure out who they are and how they fit into the world,” Nelson said. “Even just walking into your library and seeing signage around sending positive messages and groups you identify with, you know you matter. You aren’t alone. Even just having it available, seeing it advertised, it sparks conversation and helps people feel less isolated.” 

Nelson grew up in a rural town and called the time when the library bus, as that’s all they had, would stop near her house the highlight of the week. Since then her kids practically lived at the library for pajama reading time, story hour and a Harry Potter club. As the kids got older, six of them served on Parks’ teen advisory board, which helped recommend programming. Five of their kids still serve on the board of 13 or so teens. 

Nelson is, of course, hardly unbiased, but she appreciated the way Parks would address difficult topics in the Read Woke book club, which her children adored. “Miss Brooky,” as the teens called her, would warn them if the book contained scenes that dealt with suicide or other topics. 

“There was a lot of transparency about what was talked about,” Nelson said. “She read the books ahead of time and was very clear in her actions.”

The fact that her children wanted to speak before the board about her termination said a lot about the programs she presented, Nelson said. 

“These are the two shy kids in my family,” she said. “But she gave them a voice to the point where even they were willing to stand up and speak about it.” 

• • • 

Parks was so concerned about the policy that she sent a letter out to the community to inform them about it. She posted it in Facebook groups, including a social justice page in Erie, and sent it to library members. 

“If you recognize the value and importance of having programs such as the ones being canceled,” Parks wrote, “I implore you to share this information with your fellow community members.” She then listed ways to do that, including emailing directors, the board and preparing statements for her to read at a board meeting, which she did in December. 

Parks did this on her own time, and included her own e-mail address, because she didn’t think it was right to do it on company time. 

“I couldn’t just stand by and let them cancel these programs,” she said 

A staff member called the Colorado and American Library associations, who have Intellectual Freedom committees, and had Parks talk to them about the policy.

Her real goal was to let the communities know what was going on. That remains her goal: Parks has hired representation from Rathod and Mohamedbhai of Denver, a civil rights law firm that handled, among others, the Elijah McClain wrongful death case, winning $15 million from Aurora. She hasn’t ruled out a lawsuit or pursuing a settlement, but so far, the federal filings are her only legal action against the library district.

The reasons for her termination, on Dec. 16, were for offenses that she had never received any kind of warnings for, written or verbal. She said her record was spotless up until that point, though she didn’t want to share past evaluations, either from High Plains or from Denver Public Libraries, where she started her career as a librarian about five years ago. She joined the Erie library in 2019. Parks believes these offenses weren’t made up but stacked against her to make a case for letting her go. 

Ownes, who works for Denver Public Library, has talked to others about Parks’ time working there and received positive feedback. 

“Brooky is a very good librarian,” Ownes said. “I know several who have worked with her in Denver and have total confidence in her.” 

One of Parks’ attorneys, Azra Taslimi, who is at the same law firm, said organizations and companies typically stack charges when they retaliate against an employee and know they don’t have a good reason for firing someone. She also said the fact that her firing took place less than four weeks from sending the letter (or when the policy was enacted for that matter) makes it likely that she was fired for retaliation. 

“Nine times out of 10 they do that (to get out of any kind of legal action),” Taslimi said of stacking problems with an employee. “It gives them a defense.” 

The larger issue, Taslimi said, is whether the community wants their library to engage in what she called “historical patterns of discrimination.” 

“Do we really want unelected officials coming in and politicizing public institutions like our libraries?” she said.

The library doesn’t plan to revisit the policy, Melena said, but that shouldn’t be an issue, given that officials believe this was an isolated incident despite what Shawcross said. It’s doubtful more concerns will be expressed: Shawcross also said current employees she knows are terrified to say anything after what happened to Parks. 

Parks is currently reading her fourth book on intellectual freedom and trying to work with the state and national library freedom committees to see if anything can be done. She is also looking for another job and updating her resume in between filing for unemployment. 

“It’s tough out there in library land,” she said. “It’s highly competitive.”

She is not in danger of losing her house yet or starving. The bigger issue, she said, is she wants to continue to work as a librarian. She found a second career, almost a second life, really, after falling in love with the library as a stay-at-home mom taking her kids to story time, volunteering and eventually getting a Master’s degree. She worked for shelters and social work with troubled teens. This fit her life mission. 

“I’m starting over,” she said. “I just hope I can land somewhere that values the job I can do and supports the job I’m doing and doesn’t cancel all my programs. This is my passion.”