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Librarian Forced to Resign over Fees
Hundreds have signed a petition to support Woodson Hughes, and on Tuesday, lots of people came out to show their support for him.
On Tuesday, the library board met at the Halifax Library in a small room, a room that was packed, with a line to get inside that stretched out the door. Most there said Hughes, the former Branch Manager, deserves his job back.
Hughes was a librarian in Halifax County for 22 years. He says he was recently forced to resign, for waiving fines. He never expected the town to rally behind him.
"I was just a person who managed a library in a small town in Southside Virginia. I certainly never expected anything like this. Never," Hughes said.
In September, library director Rhonda Griffin sent an email to staff saying a total of $1,400 in fines had been waived in a three month time period. One patron even had more than $80 waived.
Hughes says he did waive some fines for people who couldn't afford it, the elderly who couldn't get to the library to pay, and those with troubles.
"I tried to uphold the policies of the library to the best of my ability and I also tried to help the patrons to the best of my ability," Hughes said.
Ron Miller was so upset after hearing about what happened to Hughes that he resigned as president of the Friends of the Library funding group.
"When the library dismissed Woodson I just didn't feel like working hard to support a library that would do what it did to somebody like that," Miller said.
Anne Raab, who has been collecting signatures, says she has 300. And says there are still more forms out there.
“I cannot imagine him doing anything to bring discredit to the library, he loves the library,” Raab said.
“Leaving such a place in the best of circumstances would have been difficult. Leaving so abruptly was just ten times more so,” Hughes said.
Griffin says fees should only be waived in extreme circumstances.
The email she sent out to staff says continuously waiving fines for one person is the same as embezzlement.
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Latest Comments on "Librarian Forced to Resign over Fees"
posted by: Meem on 9:37 am on 10/29/09
Griffith has been here for 1 year. She does not live in the area & has made little attempt to get to know the people of South Boston. She has said publicly that 'she does not and would not live here, she just works here'. Woodson has been here his entire life and has worked for the library for 22 years. He knows his patrons.
I want to know a few things: Did Griffith, at any time following her assumption of this position, have a staff briefing / training session to re-align staff behaviors with her policies? Did she hold training sessions for the computer program being used to show staffers how to handle waiving fines when necessary? Is there or has there been an "official policy" about which employees are fully aware, or did she just assume there was? Woodson is doing nothing more or less than what he has always done - kept the best interests of the library by keeping patrons satisfied and returning.
What, exactly, is the policy for reprimanding employees? I think Rhonda Griffin should resign and that Woodson should be reinstated; failing that, he should file a wrongful termination lawsuit. If every employee was not, in documented fashion, audited, then he was intentionally singled out. Since there was no meeting or training session for this to be addressed by Ms. Griffin, she has no business firing him for doing something he has done for over twenty years without complaint or issue. She should have had a disciplinary meeting and then followed it up with staff training to address the issue. She has mishandled this all over the place and demonstrated extremely poor leadership and managerial skills.
Do you know that the day after Woodson left she took the day off and left the library staff to cope with the public response? She didn't even have the guts to come to work and handle complaints about her choices.
I want to know a few things: Did Griffith, at any time following her assumption of this position, have a staff briefing / training session to re-align staff behaviors with her policies? Did she hold training sessions for the computer program being used to show staffers how to handle waiving fines when necessary? Is there or has there been an "official policy" about which employees are fully aware, or did she just assume there was? Woodson is doing nothing more or less than what he has always done - kept the best interests of the library by keeping patrons satisfied and returning.
What, exactly, is the policy for reprimanding employees? I think Rhonda Griffin should resign and that Woodson should be reinstated; failing that, he should file a wrongful termination lawsuit. If every employee was not, in documented fashion, audited, then he was intentionally singled out. Since there was no meeting or training session for this to be addressed by Ms. Griffin, she has no business firing him for doing something he has done for over twenty years without complaint or issue. She should have had a disciplinary meeting and then followed it up with staff training to address the issue. She has mishandled this all over the place and demonstrated extremely poor leadership and managerial skills.
Do you know that the day after Woodson left she took the day off and left the library staff to cope with the public response? She didn't even have the guts to come to work and handle complaints about her choices.
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