The Henderson County (N.C.) Public Library board reinstated the video of the hit 1999 mockumentary Blair Witch Project to the library collection June 11, reversing their unanimous month-old order to pull it. “We may have been misguided in our decision last month,” board Chairman Art Harrington noted before the 4–1 vote, alluding to some 100 messages officials had received about the ban, half of which were opposed to the action.
Among those voicing their displeasure were the Friends of the Library, which presented an anti-censorship petition signed by the members. “I think the board needs to trust the library staff,” Friends President Ray McKenzie-Wilson asserted. Trustee Stan Shelley, who cast the dissenting vote, countered, “It’s possible for a library staff member to make a mistake. If you accept that, it’s not wrong at times to remove items from the library.” Shelley explained that he objected to the movie’s “excessive amounts of profanity [that] is offensive to the community.”
“Personal preference should not be a reason to remove something. If it is blatantly offensive to the community as a whole, that should be the only reason to remove material,” HCPL Director Bill Snyder remarked after the vote, according to the June 12 Hendersonville Times-News.
Posted June 17, 2002.