Cooing Baby Gets Mom Kicked Out Of Library, Arrested

[The Straight Story]

Young Mother Kicked Out Of Library, Arrested
Cooing Baby Gets Mom Kicked Out Of Library


Serita Foster said her 14-month-old son made a cooing sound that caused them to get kicked out of the Decatur library.

"The noise that he made... it's wasn't like he was crying. It was like a cooing noise and he just kinda briefly made the noise. He had his flash cards and he was waving them around at one point," said Foster.

Foster said she was on the second floor using the computer to get information about a job.

"And the security guard came over to me and he said, 'Your son just made that noise, he's going to need to quiet down or you're going to have to take him out the library,'" stated Foster.

Foster said she gave her son a bottle and he was quiet when the security guard approached her again.

"He said the official, the branch manager wanted me to go ahead and leave because the baby made the noise initially and he may make the nose again," said Foster.

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/27127435/detail.html

[ejpoeta]

1. just wait til they privatize the libraries!! honestly, i have had my kids

running around in the library and had no one say a word. though i was hugely embarrassed! That is just disturbing that this woman would be thrown out like that!

[HuckleB]

2. Wow! It's not usually the kids that are the problem in libraries.

This is clearly reverse ageism, IMO!

[Edweird]

3. Quiet means quiet. Yes, this means you.

[seabeyond]

9. sneezing, coughing, a gasp.... OMG, imprisonment. meh.... noise in my library

they embrace children adn really make the feel welcome instilling a love for both place and books. i will take that over

quiet

anytime

[Edweird]

18. I'm a fan of common couretsy.

Libraries also lend music, but I doubt you'd be cool with me playing Lamb Of God through my MP3 player while I browse periodicals. Of course I wouldn't do that anyway, because that's not my style. I listen to music while thumbing through 'Bike' at home. If I need a place to read or study QUIETLY, there's a place for that - the library.

It's kind of related to why I don't piss on public toilet seats and despise others that do.

[Iris]

32. Except that most libraries don't enforce "quiet" rules anymore.

Many have a quiet floor but public libraries tend to be busy places and that sometimes mean noisy.

[Liberal_in_LA]

39. kids make all kinds of noises in my library

[Lars39]

4. The guard made more noise than the baby.

Didn't Germany just pass a law about children making noise?

[Karia]

5. Racism maybe?

Just a guess...

[cordelia]

12. Why would you come to that conclusion?

[pipi_k]

44. This is exactly why

I absolutely HATE when stuff like this happens with/to non-whites.

Because sooner or later someone decides it's "racism".

[MineralMan]

6. Black Woman Kicked out of Library in Decatur, GA

There, I fixed the title. Decatur is 65% white. How dare this woman come into the library with her child and upset the good folks of Decatur?

[KamaAina]

16. Actually, Decatur is one of the *more* tolerant suburbs of teh ATL

my senior Decatur correspondent is in a same-sex relationship (to my eternal regret :( )

[cordelia]

17. Decatur is the county seat of DeKalb County

The white population of DeKalb County is 40.2%, so what's your point?

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Homeless man won appeal when library tried to bar him (NJ)

Violations of free speech and free assembly clauses of the First Amendment, free access to a public forum, violation of due process, the NJ State Constitution,


http://www.ahcuah.com/lawsuit/federal/kreimer1.htm

[WatsonT]

8. If it was being a disruption

then she should be asked to leave.

Libraries are supposed to be quiet.

The stereotype of a "shushing" librarian exists for a reason.

[seabeyond]

10. not consistent today, from what i have seen. yet to be in a library that promoted "quiet"

like when i was growing up

[WatsonT]

15. I'm not sure I get what you're saying

do you mean that it's not consistently enforced today?

[bobbolink]

19. been in a library lately?

:rofl:

[WatsonT]

20. Yes

frequently actually.

I get that many people are not quiet.

That doesn't mean it's universally acceptable.

[bobbolink]

25. I see. So its OK to pick and choose who to throw out?

[WatsonT]

34. No, everyone should get kicked out who does this

however you can't use cases where others get away with it to prove that you can likewise get away with that.

Case in point: try to get out of a speeding ticket by pointing out all the people who speed but don't get ticketed.

[bobbolink]

37. Ever heard of DWB?? You think racial profiling is OK? Targeting homeless people is just fine?

Your strawman doesn't hold up.

[WatsonT]

38. Yes I'm sure that's what happened

based on the ample facts provided we can definitively prove that this woman was singled out because of her race as part of an overarching conspiracy to keep black people illiterate.

:eyes:

[bobbolink]

40. Ah, so now the switch. YOU were going by the story until it got too heated.

NOW you question the story.

*I* KNOW for a fact that homeless people get kicked out for no cause... so this wouldn't surprise me, either, and all we have to go on is the story as printed.

It is sickening to me that so many "progressives" accept profiling when it suits them to do so.

[WatsonT]

42. Huh?

No I was going by the story.

There is nothing in it to suggest this was race based other than that she was black.

No history of letting whites slide for the same offense, etc.

You concluded it was race based from . . . what exactly?

[pipi_k]

50. Race-based because...

blacks are too uneducated, apparently, to be librarians, security guards, and cops.

Of course, I'm being sarcastic...

but, as I said a bit down below, it certainly seems like some here are assuming without evidence that a lone black woman was the victim of the Great White Satan in the guise of library and public servant authority figures...


I would really love it if another side to this story came out and we discovered that at least one, if not all three, of those authority figures involved were also black.

:+

[pipi_k]

49. What does this incident have to do with homelessness and

DWB?

Is anyone here absolutely positive that the librarian, security officer, and responding police officer were all WHITE people who were acting in concert to harass a black woman?

Because, you know, that's sort of the feeling I'm getting.

Everyone seems to be assuming that all those in authority were WHITE.

Now why would that be, I wonder...


And there's no evidence from the article that this woman was homeless, either.

[blondeatlast]

21. Ex-reference desk worker here (paraprofessional)--what you said.

I'm guessing the noise or the guard were WAY over the top and I'd put my money on it being the guard.

[joshcryer]

24. Advent of computers = louuuuuuuuuuuuddddd libraries.

The typing alone and mouse clicking can get incredible. :rofl:

[bobbolink]

26. CELLfuckingPHONES

[WatsonT]

36. Ought to carry the death penalty

if it's that important to talk about you can walk outside.

[bobbolink]

41. The dramatics really carry the logic.

:crazY:

[WatsonT]

43. Ahem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue-in-cheek

[bobbolink]

46. .

:rofl:

[WatsonT]

35. There are fundamental differences between

the sounds of keyboards, papers rustling, etc.

For one libraries must have those sounds, it comes hand in hand with the function of a library. Also we aren't geared to respond to those noises the way we do talking, or a baby crying. So they aren't nearly the disruption of those other two examples.

[pipi_k]

11. As usual...

We get a one-sided story and people think it's the absolute truth...that nothing else happened other than what this woman says happened.

Parents are notoriously blind and deaf to a lot of what their kids do.
One person's "cooing" could very well be a happy shriek. Something like that, done suddenly in the quiet of a library, could be very disturbing and disruptive. And the argument that he had done it once and might do it again...that makes sense to me. It would be like waiting for the other shoe to drop.


She then admits that she and the responding officer "had words". Yeah. I'll bet. Does anybody really think she might be minimizing what those words were, and exactly how loudly they were exchanged?


Things may or may not have happened exactly as she said. We don't know that. But that apparently doesn't prevent anyone from comparing the library and police to Nazis even though nobody has the entire story...

[MilesColtrane]

13. That's one side of the story.

[teenagebambam]

14. In other news

babies make noise. Film at eleven.

[WI_DEM]

22. My guess is that there is a little more to the story than we know

[chaska]

23. Praise Jesus! More of this, please. Libraries are like shopping malls now.

The noisiest place I go is the library.

Babies shouldn't even be allowed in libraries.

[Hannah Bell]

27. this is not national news. this is anti-public institution propaganda.

all these stories of atypical events (my library allows kicking screaming children to run around; all they do is ask parents to quiet them) have one thing in common: the "villains" are always public workers, public institutions, or poor people.

really sick of the covert propaganda.

[rucky]

30. If she weren't black and this weren't Decatur, GA

I'd be right with you.

[Hannah Bell]

31. if the article presented evidence that the decatur library systematically kicks out noisy black

people while allowing noisy white people to remain, and not just the atypical decision of one stupid security person, i'd be right with *you*.

[blondeatlast]

28. My reference desk story: Homeless man comes in, asks for info on cars.*

I walk him to the appropriate stack, he thanks me, I turn my attention to the next person, a middle-aged, well groomed man in an expensive suit. Expensive suit sez: "I bet there are people you wish you didn't have to help here."

I think to myself, "Oh, yes indeed there are" but smile coldly. Yeah, I'd love to kick arrogant, rude assholes to the Central Avenue curb and help the homeless get a little respite from the heat.

*I know what he's there for; it's Phoenix, August, and 110 degrees. He just wants a little rest in the cool and quiet--who (with a heart) could blame him?

[ieoeja]

29. Okay to kick her out. But the arrest is stupid.

I ask coworkers yes-no questions all the time. My yes or no always comes with a lengthy explanation.

I ask my brother for phone number to the meat processing plant because I know he will screw up my order. He sends me a long response minus the number. We repeat this ad nauseum til one day he sends me the phone number along with the message that my order is already finished.

Police officers need to learn that very few people, not martially trained, respond succinctly. "Just the facts, ma'am," doesn't happen that often. Again and again cops arrest people for arguing with them or not following orders quickly enough. They aren't trained. Your average cop was probably just as bad before they were trained, but have forgotten or mistakenly think "hopping to it" is just part of growing up.

[uppityperson]

33. More info in these stories...NOT the baby cooing but how she reacted

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/27127435/detail.html

(clip)
Foster said library personnel abruptly shut down her computer and told her to leave. She said she had questions they didn't want to answer, so they called the police.

"They came and they escorted us out of the library," said Foster.

But Foster's problems didn't end there. She said she and the responding officer had words.

He issued her a citation, a warning not to return to the library or she would be arrested for trespassing...(more)

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/25449679/detail.html

(clip)
“As an adult, I can take responsibility for what I do wrong, but he’s 14 months old and I can’t affect when he makes a noise,” said Foster.

The library’s director told Channel 2 Action News that Foster became boisterous after being told to leave, and that’s why they called police.

DeKalb County police said she cursed at officers, prompting her arrest.

Foster denied cursing at anyone.

[WatsonT]

45. I like this quote:

"“As an adult, I can take responsibility for what I do wrong, but he’s 14 months old and I can’t affect when he makes a noise,” said Foster."

No kidding, that's why you got the citation, not the kid.

[uppityperson]

47. Exactly, sounds like not what the baby did but what she did.

[onpatrol98]

48. Kind of dumb...

These days I'm just glad people still go to libraries. Every once in awhile you'll get some noisy people, but I've yet to be in a library small enough that I couldn't just relocate my reading. I think kicking her out was an overreach. I think an arrest implies a lot more. I have no idea if it was racially motivated, but unless she assaulted someone or worse, I would find an arrest puzzling.

Then again, some people get trigger happy when they get a bit of power. No power at home or anywhere else...and I could see someone "enforcing" that quiet sign to the nth degree. It just seems silly. I mean...and for the poster that suggests kids shouldn't be allowed in the library. My love of libraries and books came from being in them with my mother. There wouldn't have been any one to leave me with, so she could have gone to the library. And, eventually, there was no other place I would've wanted to be.

I propose we need more kids in libraries as often as possible. Create new spaces for small children. Some libraries already have them. With the advent of new technologies, in another 10 to 15 years, that security guard may need to retire or find another job. People just aren't taking advantage of libraries like they used to.