Louisiana librarian and freedom to read advocate Amanda Jones has filed a defamation lawsuit in federal court against a New Jersey man accused of falsely attacking her as a “groomer” for her efforts to defend the right to read.
In a November 26 complaint, filed in federal court in both Louisiana and New Jersey, Jones accuses Dan Kleinman, who authors a blog called Safe Libraries, of Defamation and False Light, seeking damages in excess of $75,000.
“Kleinman’s statements about Jones are false and harmful. They cast Jones as a deviant and a danger to children and expose her to misplaced contempt and ridicule. There is perhaps no statement more injurious to an elementary educator than that they ‘sexualize’ children,” reads the complaint, which includes numerous examples from Kleinman’s blog and social media posts. “Jones files this lawsuit to hold Kleinman accountable for his false statements about her, but this lawsuit is not solely for Jones. Jones is not the only target of Kleinman’s campaigns. Jones hopes that this lawsuit might cause Kleinman to stop falsely maligning librarians everywhere.”
In a post on her website, Jones explained what motivated the suit against Kleinman.
“He has emailed my place of work, he has emailed me, he has traveled to Louisiana on the invitation of my local haters, he tags my legislators and school in his false posts, and he frightens me,” Jones wrote. “I’ve attempted to ignore it for two years, but it has escalated. I should not have to live like this—worried about the next lie and attempt to tarnish my name, worried about him continuing to show up to events I am at, or worried for the safety of myself and my family.”
Jones, School Library Journal’s 2021 Co-Librarian of the Year, became one of the nation’s most vocal advocates for the freedom to read after she spoke up at July 2022 public meeting against a bid to pull a number of mostly LGBTQ-themed books from her hometown public library in Livingston Parish, La. The following day, she was accused by two men on social media of grooming children and fighting to make pornography available to kids. Jones fought back by filing a defamation suit in Lousiana state court against the men who publicly accused her of wanting to sexualize children. And though a state judge initially dismissed the suit, the Louisiana Supreme Court is still considering whether to reinstate it.
In 2023, Jones was awarded the John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award by the ALA, which honors those who show personal courage in defending intellectual freedom. And in August, Bloomsbury published her memoir That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, which tells the personal story of her fight for the freedom to read, and against the men who targeted her.
