[Publib] parent abusing child

[Bruce Bumbalough]

In many states if a person sees what may be regarded as child abuse and fails to report it, they are committing a crime.   A patron's rights to privacy extends to their library records, not to the commission of a possible crime.

I'm not a lawyer and don't pretend to give legal advice, but this one cries out for police intervention.

Bruce Bumbalough
Reference Librarian
Grapevine Public Library
1201 Municipal Way
Grapevine, TX 76051

817-410-3404 or 817-410-3449
bbumbalough@ ci.grapevine.tx.us


>>> "King, Jamie" <Jamie.King at flr.follett.com> 10/2/2007 5:08 PM >>>
What exactly is the patron privacy issue here?

Jamie King
McHenry, IL



> -----Original Message-----
> 
> 
> 
> We had an incident (not the first) where a parent was physically
> assaulting a child-not spanking, but in one instance a punch.  In
> today's incident, the mother pulled a child along the floor by the arm
> (a bit of a distance), and then proceeded to twist the child's arm
with
> both hands.  Both of these seem a bit out of line for general
> discipline.  My personal opinion is that this is not normal behavior,
> but what is my (or my staff's) professional responsibility in this
> situation?  No one was comfortable just letting it go, but we weren't
> sure if calling the police was within bounds because of privacy issues
> (the mother is a patron).
> 
> 
> 
> My inclination is to call the police, and I'm looking into a policy
> regarding abuse, but it's a line.  We do have a detailed behavior
> manual, but it doesn't deal specifically with this issue.  I'd call
the
> police to find out what they want us to do, but I wanted to check with
> my peers about the patron privacy issue.  I've called them for
> generally disruptive persons, but not for this particular issue.
> 


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