IN JANUARY 2011 Ann Arbor District Library Trustee Prue Rosenthal sent this email in response to news from the Library’s Executive Director that there had been two heroin overdose victims discovered at the Downtown Library: “Scary to think of the effect if the public knew there was heroin dealing in the building.” Trustee Rosenthal’s meaning is clear: the public’s perception of the Downtown library would be adversely impacted if the fact that there was heroin dealing were to be generally known. If the Library’s Executive Director Josie Parker had been inclined to alert the public to the drug crimes and public safety issues involved prior to Rosenthal’s reply, it’s not difficult to imagine the chilling effect the trustee’s response would have had on any inclination toward transparency.

The 2011 incident was not isolated. The Library Director recently revealed in an interview that there is drug paraphernalia found in Downtown library bathrooms almost daily.

While a trustee’s instinct to protect the reputation of the AADL is understandable, doing so by putting thousands of small children and teens at risk over a several year period is absolutely unacceptable. When she sent that email, Trustee Rosenthal was the Vice President of the Board. The President of the Board, Margaret Leary, did not reply to the email from the Executive Director about the drug sales/overdoses. It’s unclear whether all trustees received the January 22, 2011 email alerting them to the heroin sales.

Trustee Rosenthal’s email makes two facts clear: first, she was made aware that heroin was being sold in the Downtown Library; second, the trustee did not want to alert the public to the drug crimes in the Downtown Library. Her concern about the “effect if the public knew there was heroin dealing in the building” was placed ahead of the public’s need to know that there was heroin (and, as it turns out) cocaine drug trafficking in the Downtown library over an extended period of time.

While the exact number of children who attend library programming and events unaccompanied by parents isn’t possible to determine,  there are events and programming aimed at teens and pre-teens, such ESL classes and homework groups. The Downtown library’s Teen Section is less than 30 feet from the first floor bathroom in which library patrons discovered heroin overdose victims and, according to the AADL Executive Director, needles and other drug paraphernalia are regularly found by staff.

We must be generous and conclude Trustee Rosenthal wished to protect the AADL. However, protecting an institution while putting at risk tens of thousands of patrons—particularly unsuspecting children—demands her removal from the board.