By Michael Miller (May 7, 2003)

The Falls Church City Council voted 4-3 to change the Mary Riley Stiles privacy policy at their meeting on the evening of Monday, April 28. Now the policy states that when children 14 and under apply for a library card, the parent can choose whether or not they want to have the ability to view their child’s library record.

This was voted on after a long debate involving many citizens of Falls Church, in which views on the policy ranged from wanting to keep the policy as it had been, where everyone had full confidentiality, to allowing parents to see the records of any children under 18. Topics relating to this change were also discussed, such as the library’s policies on censorship and adding new books to their collection.

Advocates for maintaining the current policy questioned whether or not this change in the policy was "attempting to achieve a legitimate governmental objective" and that children "should be encouraged to read about controversial topics and form their own opinions." 
 

Advocates for the change stated that the old policy "interfered with parental rights" and was "an out of step policy" when compared to other parental rights. Even though the policy was changed, proponents of the change were not totally satisfied, as they wished to have the policy allow total viewing rights over minor children’s library records to their parents. Also on Monday, Bradley Gernand, a representative from the library board, came to GMHS to discuss the matter with a few teachers and students in order to get a feel for the opinion that high school students had toward the possible change in the privacy policy.

Senior Jessica Charter and Library Board Representative  Bradley Gernand discuss the possible impacts of the new  library policy. (Photo by Michael Miller)

A petition had been passed around that over 60 seniors signed against the change. "I think that it’s unnecessary, because if parents don’t trust their kids that much, then maybe they shouldn’t even have a library card" said senior Kristin Sommers.