A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order July 16 to prevent the Windsor Locks school district in Hartford, Connecticut, from removing Cheryl Ward from her job as a middle school librarian until her case is resolved. Ward has filed suit against the district saying officials tried to transfer her to a fifth-grade teaching position in retaliation for her speaking out against new censorship policies that would limit access to certain books in the school library.
According to a report in the July 21 Boston Globe, the order was issued by U.S. District Court Judge Dominic Squatrito. Ward, who has been a South School librarian for nine years, was not immediately available for comment. Paula Topor, executive assistant to Superintendent June Hartford-Alley, told American Libraries that school officials could not discuss the case.
Posted August 10, 1998.