The Oskaloosa (Kans.) Public Library board canceled a June 7 storytelling presentation about Muggles, the nonmagical humans portrayed in the Harry Potter series, after some residents expressed fear their children would be taught witchcraft there.
The board was prompted to call a special meeting after receiving negative reaction to an ad librarian Paula Ware ran in The Oskaloosa Independent promoting “Muggle Studies” for “aspiring young witches and wizards.” The board went into executive session and initially voted not to cancel the program; however, when a member of the public charged that the board had committed an open-meetings violation and threatened a lawsuit, the board reversed its decision and canceled the program, the Lawrence Journal-World reported June 13.
Ware said that some of the board members later acknowledged they may have reacted too hastily, but “that doesn’t help the kids who wanted to come to the program.”
Other reading programs would be offered this summer, Ware said, and she would put the incident behind her. “But if this had been about banning the books, I would have taken this to the Supreme Court,” she said.
Posted June 18, 2001.