Doing the right thing

Brenda Biesterfeld may or may not be a good worker, but she is probably a good citizen, at least based on her willingness to fight for a good cause.

Biesterfeld is the library worker in Tulare County, Calif., who was fired from her job after calling police to report that she had witnessed a patron viewing child pornography on a library Internet portal.

There are lots of reasons why Biesterfeld may not prevail in her battle to be reinstated, not least of which is the fact that she was a probationary employee. Legally, an employer may terminate an employee during the probationary period for any cause or no cause at all, as long as the firing is not made for an illegal reason such as racial or gender bias.

Biesterfeld was fired on March 6, several days after she reported to police that she had seen a man on Feb. 28 viewing images of nude boys on a library computer. Police arrested the man, Donny Chrisler, 39, when he returned to the library on March 4 and later allegedly found child pornography on Chrisler's home computer.

The question of whether Biesterfeld was fired because her library superiors didn't approve of her decision to call police is somewhat moot. The county says there were other reasons for the firing, and they may be able to prove it.

But what should concern people is that when Biesterfeld had called her supervisor at the main library and asked what to do about the man viewing pornography, she was told to pass the man a note (because he is deaf) telling him to stop immediately. Biesterfeld says she asked about calling police and was told not to do so.

That, for me, and no doubt for millions of Americans, is the scary part. At what point did we cross the threshold of political correctness where it is now considered more appropriate to politely ask people to stop their illegal behavior than to report them to proper authorities.

Understandably, there are a number of murky areas here, which make ultimate conclusions about the particulars of the case impossible. Biesterfeld's supervisor, for instance, denies being told that the man was viewing child pornography specifically. Because distribution of child pornography is always illegal, but adult pornography is not, that could be an important distinction. In addition, because Biesterfeld violated a direct order of her superior and called police, she could be guilty of insubordination, a firing offense even when you are not on probation.

So let's just put Biesterfeld's employment status in the hands of her lawyers, and focus instead on the larger issue of what is appropriate when confronted with illegal and immoral behavior.

Biesterfeld witnessed what she believed to be a crime, and she tried to do something about it. Her supervisor, on the other hand, apparently tried to minimize the problem by pretending it didn't exist. This follows the philosophy of the American Library Association, which has fought against installing filters on library computers to block access to pornographic websites. As I wrote last year, one ALA spokeswoman, Judith Krug, has actually gone so far as to say "Blocking material leads to censorship. That goes for pornography and bestiality, too. If you don't like it, don't look at it."

And if you have a conscience, by all means get rid of it.

Who knows? Perhaps the county did have a perfectly good reason to fire Biesterfeld. Her superiors now claim that she had a problem shelving books, filling out her time sheets, and handling cash, among various complaints, but it is curious that her three-month evaluation did not mention these issues and instead focused on the positive: "You are steadily increasing your skills in the domain of Public Service… You have demonstrated the willingness to learn the Branch procedures… You are consistent while assisting customers with library policies, directional inquiries, assessing with public computers, and assisting customers locate books in the branch."

It sounds like she was a good soldier as long as she kept her mouth shut. But as soon as she saw something which her conscience would not tolerate - and spoke up - she became a bad employee. Do nothing, and be rewarded; do right, and be gone. Even if the county didn't intend to send that message, it is a horrible consequence of their firing of Brenda Biesterfeld.

It is up to all of us to speak up on her behalf, just as we must protect all people of conscience - and prosecute those who acquiesce to immorality. If a soldier at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, for instance, had seen something illegal being done, and did not speak up, he would be considered just as culpable as the people committing the illegal acts of torture.

Being ordered to keep quiet does not get you off the hook either. Each person is responsible individually to follow the dictates of conscience. Being ordered not to have a conscience does not get you off the hook, and never has - not in Auschwitz, not in Abu Ghraib, not in the White House, and not in the Tulare County Library.

It comes down to knowing the difference between right and wrong. Brenda Biesterfeld saw something she knew was wrong, and tried to do something about it. Perhaps we need more government employees like her, not less.

. Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake and writes a weekly column. E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com