Fired Kingsland librarian files civil suit against Llano County

Former Kingsland librarian Suzette Baker filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, March 4, against Llano County, its judge and commissioners, the library system’s director, and four members of the county’s Library Advisory Board. In Barbara Suzette Baker v. Llano County et al., Baker charges the defendants with violating her civil and First Amendment rights when she was fired on March 9, 2022. 

“I want to clear my name,” Baker told DailyTrib.com in a phone interview. “I was accused of doing something I did not do. I was asked to do things I couldn’t do, and I was fired because of it.” 

In the lawsuit, Baker said she was fired from her position as head librarian of the Kingsland Library when she refused to remove books about racial minorities and LGBTQ+ individuals from its collection. 

She also was ordered to take down a display of historically banned books during the nationwide Banned Books Week and told she could not attend then-public meetings of the newly appointed Llano County Library Advisory Board. The meetings were subsequently closed to the public. The list of books she was ordered to remove originated from members of that board. 

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, Austin Division. Defendants are listed as Llano County, Llano County Commissioners Court, Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham, Llano County Library Director Amber Milum, Commissioner Precinct 4 Jerry Don Moss, and Library Advisory Board members Bonnie Wallace, Rochelle Wells, Rhoda Schneider, and Gay Baskin. 

It is the second lawsuit filed against these same defendants concerning books banned from the Llano County Library System. Leila Green Little et al. v. Llano County et al., which was filed in April 2022, is currently awaiting a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. 

The appeal is to overturn an injunction from U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman, who ordered the 17 removed books be returned to library shelves and the digital catalog system. These include children’s books “Gary the Goose and His Gas on the Loose,” “Freddie the Farting Snowman,” and “My Butt is So Noisy!” — among others — and the following award-winning, non-fiction books that were in the adult section: “They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” and “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” The majority of the books removed focused on racial equality and gender identity.

In firing Baker, “defendants expressed clear animus towards protected groups and associated Ms. Baker with those groups and/or with advocacy and opposition against discrimination against those groups,” reads the official complaint filed, referring to minorities and members of the gay community as protected groups. The lawsuit further states that the defendants’ actions deprived others of their fundamental rights. 

“As a result, they have caused Ms. Baker significant injuries, as well as indelibly harming their constituents and community, all actions for which they must be held responsible and be subjected to accountability,” the suit continues.

Baker filed a wrongful termination complaint on Sept. 16, 2022, with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that is still under investigation, a process that takes considerable time to complete, said Baker’s attorney Iris Halperin of Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC in Denver. Baker is also represented by Jerry S. Edwards of Edwards Law in Austin. The EEOC investigation and statutes of limitations affected the timing of the civil suit, which Halperin said is part of a nationwide movement.

“Llano is not the only place this is happening,” she continued, pointing to a national trend “to make it impossible for public libraries to continue to be valuable resources.”

“They are doing this by attacking the books and the librarians because they can’t attack the users. That’s already been established in law,” she said. “This isn’t really about parental rights or protecting children. It’s about suppressing information that these individuals or organizations disfavor and don’t want the broader community to have access to.” 

Commissioner Moss told DailyTrib.com he agrees the two lawsuits have become national issues. 

“I think they’re wanting national recognition,” he said of the plaintiffs. “I think that both of the lawsuits are bogus to start with.” 

Moss denied having anything to do with Baker’s firing. 

“She sued me individually,” he said. “I don’t have anything in the world against Suzette Baker. I found out she was terminated on Facebook. We (the commissioners) don’t hire or fire employees. We hire department heads.”

When asked if attorney Jonathan Mitchell, who is representing the county in the other lawsuit, would also defend it in this one, Moss said that would be decided by the entire Commissioners Court after an executive session. 

He said the court system will “find the correct answer proving that (the lawsuits) were bogus.” 

For Baker, the best outcome would be to see the libraries protected. A list of eight “prayers of relief” listed in the suit includes “further injunctive relief against all defendants to cease and desist from discrimination, retaliation, and censorship.” 

“There needs to be something in place to protect this institution from harassment and censorship,” she said. “That’s the ultimate goal.” 

The civil suit also seeks punitive, compensatory, and economic damages as determined by the court. 

According to a media release sent on March 4 by the attorneys, Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC represents librarians across the nation who have been terminated and pressured to remove books from public libraries in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The firm has achieved numerous multimillion-dollar verdicts on behalf of victims of discrimination. 

Edwards Law specializes in representing people who have suffered serious injuries and routinely litigates high-profile civil rights lawsuits. The firm has obtained numerous multimillion-dollar settlements and trial verdicts as well as achieving injunctions resulting in the provision of air-conditioning and safe drinking water in Texas prisons and Hepatitis C medications for Texas Medicaid beneficiaries. 

suzanne@thepicayune.com