Former librarian sues Des Moines library, alleges leaders failed to protect staff

Editor's note: this article describes allegations of sexually explicit conduct.

Jennifer Goulden couldn't see the man's hands, but said he was "clearly" touching himself inappropriately.

The patron at Des Moines Public Library's North Side branch, where Goulden worked as a librarian, had already disturbed staff members that evening by "leering" at teenage girls from behind a pillar. Now he was sitting at one of the computer terminals, just feet away from a child at another computer, with his belt unbuckled and only a jacket resting over his hips and hands.

Perceiving him to be masturbating, Goulden remotely ended the man's computer session. In response, he turned and continued touching himself while staring at her. He refused several instructions to stop, and left only when warned that police had been called. The officers, when they arrived, refused to do anything despite being given his address and description because they hadn't personally seen what the man was doing.

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The next day, the man returned and again began masturbating while staring at Goulden. This time, the staff contacted police at once, but had to wait more than an hour for them to arrive while the man continued his misbehavior. This time police kicked the man out and issued a trespass notice to keep him out of the North Side branch — although not the library system as a whole. They declined to arrest him because, they said, he had not committed any crimes.

This episode from August 2022, and other examples of violent, threatening and indecent conduct by library patrons are among the allegations in a lawsuit Goulden filed in March against the city and library system. She alleges the Des Moines Public Library's policies, procedures and staff training are wholly inadequate to address inappropriate behavior by patrons, and that library leaders brushed off staff concerns and retaliated against employees who spoke up about their troubled workplace.

Goulden spent 18 years working in libraries, joining Des Moines' in 2020. She left in 2023 and now works in publisher sales, a career shift her attorney says was directly related to the rampant harassment she endured. In a statement, she said it was "devastating" to have to give up the only career she'd ever wanted in order to protect her mental health and physical safety.

"I deserved a workplace where I could safely do my job without being traumatized by patrons, and so does everyone else currently working for the Library," Goulden said. "Libraries truly are a place for everyone to access the information and services they need to enrich their lives. But in order for libraries to fulfill their missions, library workers have to be safe."

In a brief statement, Des Moines Public Library spokesman Tim Paluch referred a reporter with questions about the lawsuit's allegations to the library's customer behavior policy, which is intended to protect staff and the public.

"We take the safety of both very seriously," Paluch said.

Lawsuit gives grim accounts of patron misconduct

The August 2022 incident isn't the only instance of indecent behavior Goulden describes in her complaint. In November 2021, she says, one patron whose jacket sleeve was empty sat across from her desk, asked "invasive" questions, and refused to end the conversation until a coworker invented a task to give her an excuse to disengage. She later realized, reviewing surveillance video, that the man's arm had been inside his jacket, and in his pants, the entire time he'd been speaking with her.

After finding a man masturbating to pornography in January 2023, Goulden told him to leave and filed a report, including screenshots from security footage. She alleges that senior library officials concluded her report was not "precise enough" and classified the incident as "inappropriate internet use" rather than sexual harassment. She alleges that library Deputy Director Jon Hobbes told her she was "overreacting" and sarcastically asked if she was "traumatized."

In another instance in April 2022, Goulden says, she had to block a domestic abuser with her body to give time for a coworker to help the man's partner escape the building.

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In May 2022, she alleges, a man in the library made threats against people he felt had wronged him, including other library patrons, and used library computers to look up addresses of his intended victims while "graphically describing his plans to violently beat them." On the day after the mass shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, the man told Goulden he planned to bomb a Trader Joe's store, leading library staff to direct other patrons to leave the building. Police reportedly told her the man was "harmless" and refused to take any action.

In November 2022, a man followed Goulden around the library, asked her out, and when she declined, loudly threatened her and told her to "shut your f***** mouth or you're going to have to call the cops." A library security guard later described the man as complimenting and "trying to connect" with her, which she complained downplayed the seriousness of his threats.

In each case, Goulden says, she completed incident reports for her superiors, who "took no remedial action." Even after library Director Sue Woody sent an email to staff in fall 2022 acknowledging what Goulden calls a "nearly constant stream of masturbating patrons," she says, the library took no action to protect employees.

"Defendants’ expectations were clear: staff must tolerate patrons’ abusive behavior, sexual harassment, and threats of violence as a condition of employment," she says in her complaint.

Librarians lacked tools, supervisors ignored concerns

Unlike other libraries where Goulden has worked, Des Moines' lacked effective policies and procedures to address patron misconduct, she says, writing in the complaint that she was "shocked" by the inadequacy of the library's training and procedures for addressing patron misconduct. At past jobs, for example, Goulden says she had the authority to ban patrons and get trespass notices delivered by police. In Des Moines, she says, she could do neither.

Lacking such tools, she says, staff were left to develop informal tactics, such as calling each other's desk phones to help colleagues escape uncomfortable or harassing conversations.

In some ways, Goulden says, the Des Moines Public Library procedures got even worse during her tenure. While staff previously could view incident reports filed from other library branches, in January 2023 they were limited to only seeing reports filed from their own branch, according to her complaint.

Before leaving her job, Goulden made numerous suggestions to improve the library's safety protocols, according to her attorney, Madison Fiedler Carlson. Those included making doors to employee areas accessibly only by badge, upgrading cameras, letting staff share incident reports between branches, pursuing criminal charges and trespass orders against patrons who engaged in sex acts and ensuring security alarms would trigger a police response.

"At present, when the North Side security alarms go off, we get a letter in the mail days later alerting us," she wrote in a March 2023 letter. "This is in no way useful or helpful. Help needs to come when it’s called."

Goulden in her petition also points a finger at senior leaders, including Woody and Hobbs, for the staff safety woes. Woody reportedly described employee reports of patron violence as "negativity" or "complaining" and, in one case, accidently hit "reply all" on an email to Hobbs telling him to "consider the source" of staff complaints and encouraging him to ignore them.

Claims of retaliation, disability discrimination

Goulden has prosopagnosia, also known as "face blindness," according to her complaint, and feared she was particularly vulnerable to repeat harassers because she is unable to recognize people by looking at them. She says the library failed to provide any accommodations to address this danger.

She also accuses library leaders of retaliating against staff who raised complaints. After an employee emailed coworkers in spring 2020 raising concerns about racial harassment and discrimination in the workplace, the library responded by limiting employees' ability to email workers at other library branches — a change Woody reportedly said was made to stop staff from "overreacting." This restriction made it harder for staff to communicate with colleagues at other branches about known harassers, Goulden says.

She also alleges she faced retaliation directly when, after filing an internal complaint, she was banned from viewing the library's public Facebook page. She had never commented or posted on the page, she says, but remained blocked for more than six months.

How do other libraries handle harassing staff?

The Des Moines library's customer behavior policy appears to cover much of the conduct described in Goulden's complaint. That includes forbidding "sexual activity of any kind" or "indecent exposure," harassing other patrons or staff "including physical, sexual, verbal, or stalking," as well as using or threatening to use weapons or viewing sexually explicit internet content. That language is in the current policy, adopted in November 2023, as well as a prior version adopted in December 2022, during Goulden's tenure.

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Goulden, via Carlson, pointed to Altoona and Urbandale as library systems where she worked that had more effective policies regarding patron sexual harassment. A review of those libraries' policies shows language similar to Des Moines' policy: Altoona bans the use of "abusive or obscene language or gestures" toward patrons or staff, and "excessive displays of affection, which includes sexual conduct or physical contact."

Urbandale's policy forbids "lewd or inappropriate behavior" and, more broadly, behavior that threatens the health or safety of others or interferes with employees or other patrons.

But Carlson said that while the Des Moines policy may have language similar to, or even stronger, than that of nearby peers, the bigger issue is that Altoona and Urbandale consistently implemented their rules and applied consequences, while Des Moines did not.

"In practice, harassing patrons at DMPL got multiple chances to offend (figuratively and literally) library staff because reports were not taken seriously by administration," she says.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Former Des Moines librarian sues, alleging patron misconduct ignored