March 17, 2025

• [Link to audio] The RCLS Board met on March 17 voted to remove Laura Kate Dale’s children’s picture book, Me & My Dysphoria Monster: An Empowering Story to Help Children Cope with Gender Dysphoria (2022), from Linebaugh’s collection on a 5-2 vote. In his first meeting as a member of the RCLS Board representing the City of Murfreesboro, Sam Huddleston voted with the majority (including Dina Piazza, Susan Quesenberry, Marzee Woodward, and Cody York) to remove the book. Ben Groce and Kory Wells voted against its removal. Rollie Holden abstained from the vote, and Lisa Brewer was absent from the meeting.

• RCLS received a “Request for Reconsideration of Library Material” form on January 28, 2025, requesting that the book be withdrawn from the library’s collection on the grounds that it contains “false info.” The complainant wrote, “Showed the book to many, many people - They all agreed that it would cause harm to their children.” RCLS staff have reviewed the book and the complaint, and they are recommending to the Board that the title remain in the collection at its current location.

• A separate action item “Remove all material that promotes, encourages, advocates for or normalizes transgenderism or ‘gender confusion’ in minors” passed on a 5-3 vote, with Huddleston, Piazza, Quesenberry, Woodward, and York supporting the measure and Groce, Holden, and Wells voting against it.

• Board chair Phil King says that a Board member asked to have this discussion, but no documentation was submitted with this agenda item (March 17 agenda [pdf]).oes here

April 21, 2025:

• [Link to audio]The Board’s action prompted letters of warning from the Freedom to Read Foundation on March 20, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) on March 28, and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression on April 3. The NCAC letter was co-signed by the American Booksellers for Free Expression, The Authors Guild, PEN America, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

• Deiters and Todd Library Consulting, the Illinois-based search firm hired by the Board to conduct the system’s national search for a new library director, also dropped RCLS as a client on March 26 before the search was completed.

• The RCLS Board called a special meeting to be held at the RCLS Administrative Office on Monday, April 14. The agenda (pdf) lists only one item: “Consultation with Legal Counsel.” This was an executive meeting and not open to the public.

• The Rutherford County Library System (RCLS) Board met on April 21 at the Smyrna Public Library and reconsidered its March 17 action to “Remove material that promotes, encourages, advocates for or normalizes transgenderism or ‘gender confusion’ in minors.” Ultimately, the motion to rescind the March 17 action was tabled until the June 2 meeting following a 6-4 vote.

• In Monday’s meeting, Kory Wells made a motion to rescind the measure the Board passed on March 17. Rollie Holden seconded Wells’s motion.

• During the discussion of Wells’s motion, the Board shared that The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a politically conservative Christian legal organization founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, has offered to help the Board rewrite the measure in a way that maintains its spirit while offering them more cover against First Amendment legal challenges.

• Cody York made a motion to table Wells’s motion until the next meeting in order to solicit more public comment and to confer with ACLJ and the Board’s local legal counsel. York stressed that his motion to table was “non-debatable” per Robert’s Rules of Order and effectively ended the discussion.

• Chair Phil King called for a roll call vote on York’s motion to table Wells’s original motion. York’s motion passed with support from Sam Huddleston, Dina Piazza, Susan Quesenberry, Marzee Woodward, and Phil King.

• Ben Groce, Rollie Holden, and Kory Wells—all of whom voted against the original March 17 action—voted against tabling Wells’s motion. Lisa Brewer, who was absent on March 17, also voted against tabling the measure.

June 2, 2025:

• [Link to audio] The Rutherford County Library (RCLS) Board met on Monday, June 2, at Murfreesboro City Hall, where it reconsidered its ban on transgender material, elected new officers, and bid farewell to four of its ten members. The Board also provided an update on the search for a new RCLS library director.

• The Board voted to rescind its controversial decision to “Remove material that promotes, encourages, advocates for or normalizes transgenderism or ‘gender confusion’ in minors.” Board member Cody York first proposed this action at the Board’s March 17 meeting, where it was approved by a 5-3 vote. Monday’s vote to rescind passed 9-0, with Dina Piazza abstaining. Benjamin Groce was absent from the meeting.

• York explained that his decision to vote in favor of rescinding his own proposal came after the Board consulted with attorneys and determined that their action likely would not stand up to legal challenges. Board members stated in the meeting that they have already spent $8,000-10,000 on legal fees related to the March 17 action. York said he would instead seek to have the Board “rewrite policies from the ground up” in a way that would withstand court challenges and achieve the same results of removing books from the collection.

July 21, 2025:

• [Link to video] The library received a formal Request for Reconsideration from a Smyrna Public Library user on June 17 concerning Being You: A First Conversation about Gender (2021) by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli with illustrations by Anne/Andy Passchier. The patron’s written complaint, obtained through an open records request, seeks to remove this illustrated children’s book from the library system’s collections. The complaint reads: “The book goes over the genitals and how they do not determine your sex. This is false, scientifically. It goes over confusing pronouns, encouraging babies to use them & bathrooms that are not appropriate for their sex. It says your parents and doctors “guessed” at your sex when you were born & using just “boy and girl” is harmful. It encourages transing children, using that term.”

• After hearing public comments from three individuals in favor of retaining Being You, Board members discussed the book and the system’s policies concerning parental control of children’s access to specific areas of the library. Interim Library Director Mindy Barrett shared that the 2021 book had been checked out 32 times since it was added to the collection.

• New RCLS Board member Beth Duffield made a motion to accept the library staff’s recommendation. Ben Groce seconded. The motion failed (3-5) on a voice vote.

• Susan Quesenberry then offered a motion to remove the book from the collection. New board member Darrell Thomas seconded. The motion passed on a 5-3 voice vote, thus banning the book from RCLS’s collections.

• This was the first book challenge to come before the 2025-2026 RCLS Board, which welcomed three new members and new officers. Both votes showed the four Murfreesboro appointees—Sam Huddleston, Dina Piazza, Susan Quesenberry, and Darrell Thomas—and board chair Cody York aligning to reject the staff recommendation in favor of banning the book, while Smyrna’s Ben Groce and the two new Rutherford County appointees, Allison Belt and Beth Duffield, voted in the minority.

• Lisa Brewer, Smyrna’s second appointee, was absent from Monday’s meeting.

September 8, 2025:

• Secretary of State Tre Hargett sends initial letter to RCLS about complying with all federal, state, and local laws to maintain grant funding from the state, giving the example of the executive order on the promotion of gender ideology and the Dismantling DEI Departments act.

October 20, 2025:

• [Link to video] RCLS Library board discusses policy changes, including removal of all board committees and all policies that stem from the American Library Association and in support of the Freedom to Read.

October 27, 2025:

• Item descriptionSecretary of State Tre Hargett sends second letter to RCLS about conducting an age-appropriateness review within 60 days in order to comply with the executive order on the promotion of gender ideology, identifying the book Fred Gets Dressed as an example of what should be reviewed and removed.

• Secretary of State Tre Hargett sends third letter to RCLS about conducting an age-appropriateness review within 60 days in order to comply with the executive order on the promotion of gender ideology.

• Chair Cody York signs retainer with ACLJ, "politically conservative, Christian-based legal organization" without board approval or notice to the public.

• RCLS libraries announce "emergency closures" for inventory of the children and young adult sections of the library system

November 20, 2025:

• RCLS quietly removes recently challenged books (Forever by Judy Blume, The Antiracist Kid by Tiffany Jewell, Over the River and Through the Wood: A Holiday Adventure by Linda Ashman) from its collections, even after the board voted to keep them.

• RCLS board meeting regarding the results of the inventory of the children and young adult sections; retroactive vote on if the board approves of the ACLJ legal counsel; and policy changes, including removal of all board committees and all policies that stem from the American Library Association and in support of the Freedom to Read – Luanne James declared whistle-blower protection and identified chair of the board as requesting private library patron information 3 times, asking her to remove library books he personally disagreed with on two separate occasions, and filed multiple ethical violations against the chair and another board member.

• Specially called budget meeting.

• Item descriptionRCLS board meeting regarding the results of the inventory of the children and young adult sections – 2700+ books.