Last year, a state representative who was fired from her job as the assistant librarian at the Raymond Library sued the town and library trustees.
Atkinson Rep. Arlene Quaratiello’s case alleged she was fired because of her political advocacy. She then won the case and got her job back, but decided to leave it altogether.
Quaratiello joined NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa to talk about her experience and why she decided to take legal action.
Transcript
Arlene, let's start at the beginning of this story. A local paper published a letter to the editor that you wrote endorsing some conservative candidates for Atkinson Library trustee positions. And it also criticized what you called “an increasing amount of inappropriate material in the library.” Shortly after that was published, you were let go. When you were writing this letter to the editor, did it cross your mind at all that it could have jeopardized your job as an assistant librarian at the public library?
Absolutely not. Because I was supporting and endorsing candidates in my own town. Now, if it had been in Raymond, that would have been completely inappropriate. It would have been electioneering. So no, I did not have any clue that this was going to be a problem.
You partnered with a conservative legal advocacy group called the American Center for Law and Justice when you decided to file suit against the library trustees and the town alleging a First Amendment violation. And you won that case. What was going through that case like for you?
It was a long process. It was emotionally draining because I did go back to my job. I felt like I needed to do that because losing my job was wrong. And when they offered it back to me because they realized they had done something wrong, even though they never admitted it, I felt like I had to go back. I also needed a job, so I had no alternative in that respect.
Why did you make that decision after going through the legal process to return? I know you said you needed a job, but were there other things on your mind?
I went back to my job because I felt that it was wrong that I was let go. I also enjoyed parts of it, [such as] dealing with the patrons. The town of Raymond is a wonderful town, and the people I dealt with, I had some very good relationships with patrons. I felt like in a way, their library had been hijacked, and my dismissal was indicative of that, that they would—the trustees and the director—would violate my constitutional First Amendment right. I felt like my mission, for lack of a better word, was not over, and that I needed to go back and I needed to make things right. I needed to achieve justice. That's what I did not get from just getting my job back and back pay. Most [of the] lawyers I approached, they said, ‘you're good, you won.’ When I went back, I didn't feel like I had won.
When you say you felt like the library was being hijacked, could you expand on that a little bit?
Libraries, public libraries, their purpose is to serve the people of a town, not to serve, I'll say it right out there, the agenda of the American Library Association. And I don't want to get into a debate about that and all, but they weren't serving and still are not serving the needs of the town. And that is what I mean by that.
And the needs of the town would be like?
The needs of the town are what does the town want in their library? What materials? And again, this is not a debate over the conservative principles that I espouse. As far as libraries go, it's about something bipartisan, about First Amendment rights.
Editor's note: The chair of the Raymond library trustees did not respond to a request for comment before this story was published.
