- Date: Friday, February 24, 2023
- To: Enid Mayor and the Enid City Commission
- From: Concerned Citizens in Support of the Library Board
- Subject: The Public Library of Enid and Garfield County and LGBTQ+ Indoctrination of Minors without Parental Consent
Enid Mayor and Enid City Commission:
At the Enid City Commission meeting on February 23, 2023, a handful of people stood at a microphone and called elected city commissioners and Enid and Garfield County Public Library Board members names like “Nazis,” “white supremacists,” “fascists,” and “Christian nationalists.”
Some citizens of Enid don’t seem to realize that our elected city leaders and volunteer library board members are doing their due diligence to protect our city from civil liability.
A few staff members of the Enid and Garfield County Public Library exposed the City of Enid and Garfield County (Oklahoma) to potential civil liability by creating private DISCORD social media chat rooms for minor children without parental permission or consent and then indoctrinated those children with an LGBTQ+ agenda, all the while conspiring to keep parents in the dark.
The Enid and Garfield County Library Board of Directors caught this immoral, unethical, and arguably illegal activity and stopped it on November 16, 2022, by changing library policies and procedures.
Not fully comprehending the civil liability that could come from the public library’s practices, the City Manager expressed to the Enid City Commission that he felt the library board had “overstepped its authority.” Some library board members had told the City Manager (in writing) that they opposed him hiring Theri Ray without consulting the library board. Then, on November 16, 2022, the library board changed the public library’s social media policies to protect our children from sexual indoctrination without parental consent.
This post reveals specifics about the Enid and Garfield County Public Library staff’s social media activity and the chat rooms for children centered on an LGBTQ+ agenda, conducted without parental consent or permission. This post is also a formal “Thank You” to the Enid and Garfield County Library Board for protecting our children and ending the DISCORD chat rooms that promoted this sexualized agenda.
The Background of LGBTQ+ Indoctrination without Parental Consent
On November 16, 2022, the Enid and Garfield County Library Board held their regularly scheduled board meeting. Fulfilling state law, the board meeting was open to the public. Garfield County citizens can watch the full library board meeting by clicking this link.
Two weeks before the board meeting, on November 3, 2022, Enid City Manager Jerald Gilbert announced that he promoted Theri Ray from her Interim Library Director position to the full-time Director of the Public Library. The Enid library board was not consulted about Theri’s promotion to Library Director by City Manager Jerald Gilbert before he publicly announced Theri Ray’s promotion.
Questions from the Library Board to Director Ray about DISCORD Chat Rooms for Minors
At the November 16, 2022, board meeting, Enid and Garfield Library Board members questioned Director Theri Ray about the library-sponsored private chat rooms for minors.
Library board members expressed concerns that sensitive subjects such as sexuality, gender dysphoria, and other matters of a sexual nature were being discussed with minors in those chatrooms without written parental consent or even parental knowledge.
These chat rooms were set up and officially sponsored by the Enid and Garfield County Public Library.
Director Theri Ray responded to board members’ concerns by stating the following (see minute mark 1:07:30 of the board meeting),
“I guess on some level, I’m assuming parents know what their children are doing as far as social media.”
Board member Ruth Ann Miles asked if the library listed the chat rooms on the library website.
Library Director Theri Ray responded:
“No. No. No… that probably was not done. GOOGLE classrooms were created … to communicate with kids. It’s how they communicate at school, with their teachers, etc.…”
Board member Ruth Ann Miles commented in response:
“I feel that’s a conflict… One thing that I know from a person that contacted me, the library’s private DISCORD group(s) were created in such a fashion as to be secret and hidden and by invitation only… I’m having a real problem with knowing that these were secret, hidden groups by invitation only, with sexual content and without parental consent.”
Library board member Christina Hopper added:
“Concern also comes (from us) about who is moderating these (minor) chat room groups. You said that you and other staff members were. Okay? So, are there other adults in these groups moderating who are not staff, and who are these people?
Director Theri Ray answers:
“As far as I know, no adults are moderating these minor chat rooms which are NOT library staff.”
Library board member Christina Hopper then asks:
“Who is Rowan?”
Director Theri Ray answers:
“Rowan is one of our library specialists. Rowan moderates the chat rooms.”
The library board expressed concerns that the city would be liable for not obtaining parental consent signatures before minor children entered private, unadvertised chat rooms with Rowan as the moderator.
Rowan Kehn, Enid Public Library Specialist
Rowan Kehn, Enid Public Library Specialist
ROWAN KEHN PUBLIC FACEBOOK POSTS
All pictures and quotations from Rowan Kehn, Library Specialist for Enid and Garfield County Public Library, come from Rowan Kehn’s public Facebook page where Rowan lists himself as the Library Specialist for the Public Library of Enid and Garfield County.
On April 12, 2022, Enid city and Garfield County library employee Rowan Kehn publicly posted his description on social media: “Dead inside. Hot outside.”
Mr. Rowan, who deems himself she, is a transexual that Enid City Manager hired and Library Director Theri Ray allowed to “monitor” the chat rooms of minor children without parental consent. Mr. Rowan advocates “Gay Wrath Month” on his Facebook page, listing himself as a city employee.
Gay wrath month is when “LGBTQ+ people should actively fight.” Wrath Month is all about Civil Disobedience, a call for angry LGBTQ+ people to get into trouble by not allowing anything that offends gay dignity to stand. (Washington Post, July 4, 2018)
Some of the comments Rowan Kehn has made on his public social media page include the following:
- October 11, 2022 – “If you look at me (at the library) and think, ‘That looks like a person that I should try to get to go to church,’ also consider not fucking doing that. Five different people have approached me at the library desk, asking me to go to church.
- September 13, 2022 – Image saying: “trans people existing does nothing to your life you crybaby bitch.”
- July 11, 2022 – “I am every parent in teen movies worst nightmare.”
- June 10, 2022 – “Funny how ‘straight and narrow is always exclusively straight. Get over yourself and come out of the 50s.”
- June 1, 2022 – “(Grind) your heel in the teeth of your oppressors…Happy Pride Month, ya’ll! Be a nuisance to people.”
- May 24, 2022 – “I’m a beacon of safety for kids.”
- April 11, 2022 – “I’ve got the grudge and the anger to make your life hell, you slimy motherfuckers.”
- March 31, 2022 – “I’m trans and I’m visible.”
- March 22, 2022, Enid Librarian Rowen Kehn made and promoted a Game App that he sold for $1.00 saying, “I made a game for the TRANS FUCKING RAGE JAM.”
- March 18, 2022 – “I’ve sort of engineered my account specifically…if you’re seeing that, please know that our library is a safe place for you.
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Mr. Kehn’s posted image of “trans form” is a play on words; trans form straight kids into trans kids.
The Enid library is a public library. The city pays library staff salaries with taxes collected from city and county citizens. Citizens of Enid will not be happy when they become aware of the LGBTQ+ indoctrination of our children in private chat rooms without parental permission.
AN OPEN RECORDS REQUEST
The city of Enid and Garfield County has potential liability for allowing private chat rooms for children without parental consent. Friends of the Enid and Garfield County Library Board made an official request for communication between library employees about the private DISCORD chat rooms for minors.
While the Enid city attorney has yet to turn over all records, enough information has been obtained to warrant concern over the information gleaned in the communication between Library Specialist Rowan Kehn and Library Director Theri Ray regarding the lack of parental knowledge and consent in these DISCORD chat rooms filled with minor children.
I will highlight a couple of texts sent from Director Ray to Enid’s Legal Department on Wednesday, November 30, 2022, sent as part of an ongoing effort to gather information through an official Open Records request to see communication between library staff about the library’s social media chat rooms.
From Library Specialist Rowan Kehn to Director Theri Ray: “I got a message from one of the Thursday DMs saying that their mom had found out they were in the homosapiens channel and confiscated their account so any messages from that account XXXredactedXXX were likely actually from their bigoted (according to Thursday DM) mom and that we should block their ability to message us.”
Most of the texts from Director Ray were too blurry to read on the document provided by the Open Record Request.
However, after four pages of text messages, Rowan Kehn clearly conveys to Director Ray that he handled the situation as directed.
“So we will see if they bother rejoining (since kicking and banning work differently) and keep an eye out. My biggest concern is something we can’t do anything about, which is their private messages.”
THE CONCERN OVER THESE TEXTS ARE THREEFOLD:
- The staff’s response to a parent who wishes to oversee their child’s social media account is to “block the mother” from accessing any information from the chat room.
- The mindset of the library employee and director seems to be that the mother is bigoted and the child needs protection from her parent.
- The library director and the library staff member involved are still employed even though the City Manager had photocopies of these texts since 11/30/2022.
An Official Open Record request was also made to obtain the text communications between the Enid Library Specialist Rowan Kein and a child of “the parent who had taken over the chat.” The citizen who made the Open Record request was informed that the Library Specialist had deleted those text messages and that they were now “unrecoverable.”
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CITY:
- Continue to empower the Enid and Garfield Public Library Board and hold the City Manager and Attorney accountable for their lack of transparency with the city commission.
- Consider the termination (with cause) of Library Director Theri Ray and Library Specialist Rowan Kehn for violating parental consent guidelines and policies.
- Give the Enid and Garfield County Library Board full authority to hire and fire Library staff in the future and continue to support the library board’s oversight of the library.
- Communicate clearly and transparently with the public about actions taken and apologize to the Enid and Garfield County Library Board members for any city staff initially undermining the Library Board.
Enid City Manager Jerald Gilbert’s Email to the City Commissioners
Enid City Manager Jerald Gilbert emailed the Enid City Commissioners after Enid and Garfield County Public Library board changed the library’s social media policy in November 2022.
In this email, Jerald writes that he wants what most want: “…a library that doesn’t proselyte, push any issues, viewpoints or ideologies, but simply offers knowledge and independence to seek out the truth.”
We agree that a library that doesn’t proselyte is what we all want.
However, Jerald writes that the library board “has exceeded their authority” by changing the library social media policy and ending the chat rooms for minors monitored by Rowan Kehn.
The library board was within its authority.
The library board protected our children.
The library board did what it is charged to do, and it stepped in to do what our City Manager and the Library Director and Library staff should have done.
This information will not sit well with the citizens of Garfield County. Some citizens only get information about the library board from The Enid News. On January 12, 2023, the paper published an Editorial which gave this opinion about Joseph Fletcher, Chairman of the library board:
“Well, hooray for his personal opinion, but neither he, nor the library board, are the community morality or ideology police, and they should not be given that mantle. Unfortunately, that is what is happening.” (Enid News, 01.23.2023)
The Enid News would serve our community better by refraining from undermining volunteer community boards before knowing all the facts. Old-fashioned journalism serves our community best, not editorials that seem to denigrate the efforts of our library board to protect our children.
The issue before the city of Enid and Garfield County is crystal clear.
Public library employees created private, unpublicized chat rooms for children, did not obtain parental permission or parental consent signatures for their children’s involvement in those chat rooms, placed a city employee who has a publicly stated LGBTQ+ agenda to turn straight kids into trans kids as the moderator of the chat rooms, and then proceeded to Indoctrinate those children – other peoples’ children – on sexual matters, blocking concerned parents from discovering what was happening in the Enid Public Library chat rooms.
The City Manager and the Enid News seemed to fight the library board’s prudent decisions, even impugning board members, calling them “morality police” and acting as if the board wished to “ban books.”
The library board simply wished to protect our children, and they have done an admirable job.
The citizens of Enid made their voices known to city commissioners at the February 7, 2023, commission meeting. By a 7-0 vote, the commission affirmed the library board’s oversight of the library’s policies and staff.
Those who wish to indoctrinate our children and impose a trans or LBGTQ+ agenda without parental consent or involvement must realize that the citizens of Enid will not tolerate such activity. We are not Nazis. We are not White Supremacists. We are concerned parents and grandparents who take seriously our responsibility to protect our children from unwanted indoctrination.
It would not sit well with citizens or parents if Christian city employees pulled our children into private chat rooms to seek to evangelize the children in the Christian faith without parental consent.
Talking with minors about sexual matters without obtaining their parent’s consent in unpublicized DISCORD chat rooms sponsored by the public library is unethical, immoral, and arguably illegal.
No More LGBTQ+ Indoctrination of Our Children
For almost two decades, I was involved in putting policies together to track sexual predators in the convention where I served. Initially, people did not believe me when I articulated the seriousness of the problem.
After 15 years, multiple lawsuits from victims, horrific publicity, and additional victims who could have been protected had action been taken in 2007, the convention in 2022 finally implemented my original recommendations.
The Enid and Garfield County Public Library Board Members have warned our city. The LGBTQ+ indoctrination of our children in chat rooms sponsored by our public library without parental consent has occurred, and the board has stopped it.
What people do and how people live privately is their business. When public library employees indoctrinate our children without parental consent, that is our business.
The Enid Library Director and Enid library staff must realize that their LGBTQ+ indoctrination of children at our public library without parental consent has put Enid at risk of potential civil liability.
Thankfully, the outstanding Enid and Garfield County Public Library Board members have done their job.
The Enid and Garfield County Library Board should study the training and philosophy of the American Library Association (ALA) and consider severing ties with the ALA if the board discovers the ALA has been complicit in supporting the indoctrination of our children without their parent’s supervision or permission.
Sincerely,
On behalf of the thousands of concerned Enid citizens who are grateful for our elected leaders and the volunteer public library board.
P.S. Please read this superb email from Library Board Member Ruth Ann Miles to fellow library board members and city officials. Ruth Ann’s email was written one day after the November 16, 2022, board meeting and was obtained through an Open Records Request by Kayla Nichols. It is posted here with Ruth Ann’s permission to explain the potential civil liability that the city faced due to the actions of the public library employees.
Wade,
In my opinion, I believe the Enid Public Library Specialist should be ‘tared and feathered’ and carried out of town on a rail.
Rex,
What is needed is corrective action, that’s all. That should be coming soon from city officials. Nobody needs “tarred and feathered and run out of town.” However, some (sadly) have called the library board names and tried to get them removed, going so far as to call members Nazis, racists, book-banners, etc. The mentality of these leftists is deficient on multiple fronts. Thankfully, sanity has won the day.
So proud of Ruth and the others who found a problem and took action rather than sweeping it under the rug.
An ADULT Predator shows their TRUE Colors by telling children NOT to tell or trust their Parents and deleting messages…. Who are you? Disgusting Male who will never understand the Love And Devotion plus (physical abilities) to bring a child into this world and have something like YOU say you cannot trust your Mother. Absolutely angered to be hearing this and if, I see This Human at the library again it will not be pretty. Hope they’re Fired and Prosecuted to every extent.
I thank,the Enid swamp should be drained. I would like to know the library board members names. They need a pat on the back.
Thanks for bringing this out.
Thank you for making the public aware of the level that this reached.
Ruth Ann, thank you and the board for your courage to confront, your professional decorum, and for hanging in there for months while some with a bias and clear agenda sought to slander you all. I think the citizens of Enid are now truly “woke” in the absolute best sense of the term. They’ve seen the light.
Wade I more then appreciate this blog. We needed someone to be so bold!
Sounds like we need a new city manager. What is the process to be rid of this unelected official who is not accountable to the people. We need to rethink our governmental construct here.
You have hit the nail on the head. It is that unelected bureaucrat who runs your town. Not the elected officials that are chosen by your residents.
My gratitude to Ruth and all others involved in bringing this sinister agenda to light.
Hurray for the Public Library Board, and Wade for bring me this info. God Bless
In all fairness, I don’t think the speakers’ references to ‘white supremacy’ and ‘Nazis’ had so much to do with the Public Library scandal,
so much as references directed at the shock of the election of someone like Judson Blevins.
I say this after reading up on the background recently of concerns by responsible groups in Enid who were offended by the election of Blevins in spite of his previous connections to extremists.
It took a while to sort this out, but I think I’m right about this. If not, please advise me of other information that I may have missed.
I do agree that ‘keeping secrets’ from parents about what their children are encountering at the public library is morally and ethical WRONG. Any administrators who supported such a travesty need to be fired, because professionals who are in libraries and school systems KNOW that parents need to be on top of any social media that their children are participating in because of the danger of predators taking advantage of their innocence. There have been education campaigns across country for parents to inform them of these dangers, and no public library professional personnel would have any excuse for ‘ignorance’ of the need to keep parents informed.
Christiane, the name-calling of good people in Enid, hurling epitaphs of “Nazis,” and “white supremacists,” and “fascists” is definitely connected to the Enid Library.
It’s the name-calling group defending pulling children into chat rooms without parental consent or knowledge.
Judd Blevins was part of a group that passed copies of the Constitution out at college campuses. He volunteers to pick up black, brown, white, and other kids in his neighborhood every Sunday to take them to Church of the Open Door. He believes in American exceptionalism so much he was willing to die for his country as a Marine. He believes in Constitutional supremacy so much he was willing to volunteer to educate college students about the importance of the Constitution. Unfortunately, racism has become a charge against any American who believes in this nation’s historic exceptionalism, supports rewarding someone for their hard work (not entitlements), and advances merit-based systems in business, education, and government. The good citizens of Enid, regardless of color, will be well-represented by Judd Blevins. I don’t live in Judd’s district and have never met Judd (I’ve just talked to him on the phone). But unlike others, I took the time to call his pastor (whom he works out with), speak to a few of his business clients and former classmates, and, most of all, directly asked Judd about his views on race. He made it very clear to me that he believes all human beings are created in the image of God, and all human beings are his brothers and sisters of equal status in the eyes of God.
This attempt to “cancel” good people will not work in Enid.
Wade, thank you for responding with that information.
What I do know is that people CAN change.
My hope is that
IF Mr. Blevins is the same person who participated in the torch parades in Charlottesville, that he has been able to repent of those actions and to find peace in God’s forgiveness and to be able to move on with his life.
I do not know if Mr. Blevins is the same person who is accused of participating in those torch parades, no.
It would be up to him to own that behavior publicly if he DID participate, but then only if he chose to do so.
If he is not the same man as the participant at Charlottesville, then I am very sorry for mentioning anything that might not be true about an innocent person.
In the end, we can all do things we regret, and no one knows the pain we cause others but God;
but we can all repent of past sins against God and our brothers and sisters and be forgiven by God and we can choose to go forward in a good direction, by the power of Christ Crucified and the grace that flows to us from Him.
Thanks again for responding, Wade. I value your insights. I hope you continue with your ministerial work for people as you are led to do so.
On the other hand,
there is that saying ‘when a person shows you who they are, believe them the first time’.
There are two people mentioned in this post,
one is a politician seeking election and WINNING in Enid with support from people obviously,
the other is a young person with severe gender concerns and apparently with anger issues who sought to get involved with a scheme to ‘keep information away from parents’ at the library involving social media and minors, also in Enid.
The puzzle for someone like me is that both of these persons have ended up in the same post and questions remain concerning how the city of Enid will relate to these two individuals . . . I suppose time will tell. I hope there will be ‘updates’ in the future that will clarify for me that these two people are both treated in ways responsible and fair.
Honestly, it’s a post that touches on many, many concerns about the present state of our country and about our values as American people. Here’s to folks being ‘of good will’ and also responsible in the protection of young people.
Extremism does not end well. It never did. American good will and common sense is a better way forward, you bet.
Wonder why I can’t make a comment.
Rex and Christiane,
I’m not sure why commits can’t be made! I’m checking into it!