R, NC-17 Videos Return to St. Tammany
Parish Shelves

Reversing its removal of 354 R and NC-17-rated videos held by the St. Tammany Parish Library system, the library Board of Control voted 5-2 October 20 against establishing a policy barring minors from borrowing films with mature themes. The videos were pulled pending the control board's review of Richard Hart's proposal to deny youngsters checkout privileges for R and NC-17 movies unless parents gave written permission

Trustees arrived at their decision at a meeting attended by some 50 concerned observers, the St. Tammany reported October 23. Some became particularly upset after Hart explained that trustees' job is to "help parents raise children the best we can." Resident Andre Jurisich countered, "Let me take care of my kids." Another detractor, former STPL video consultant Frank Levy, hoped that any youngster's circumvention of his parent's viewing guidelines would be "the worst thing the child ever does."

Posted November 9, 1998.