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Librarian Amanda Jones Files New Defamation Lawsuits

School Library Journal – Amanda Jones has had enough. Again. The 2021 School Librarian of the Year, who has sued online harassers in the past, filed two new federal lawsuits on Tuesday. Jones is suing Dan Kleinman for defamation and “false light”—an invasion of privacy that arises from publicity that unreasonably places the plaintiff in false light before the public. “The publicity need not be defamatory in nature, but must be objectionable to a reasonable person under the circumstances and must contain either falsity or fiction,” according to a court decision cited in the suit. Kleinman, who blogs at SafeLibraries.blogspot.com, is being sued in his home state of New Jersey, as well as Jones’s state of Louisiana, where he traveled to speak against Jones at a meeting and on a local podcast. Kleinman’s posts against Jones have escalated, she says. He has tweeted about her more than 300 times in the last year and contacted her principal and school board members. He frequently tags her legislators, district, and school in his posts. He showed up at one of her recent events where she was promoting her book, That Librarian. “In addition to me feeling unsafe and that he is escalating [his harassment], I’ve been watching him do this to other librarians for years,” Jones told SLJ the day Kleinman was served. “I’ve had enough for me, and I’ve had enough for everyone else.” Jones, who is still awaiting judgment on the re-petition of her original case in Louisiana, spent a year considering taking action against Kleinman before finally deciding to sue him. “I’m just taking a stand,” she said. “I’m not sure how much more I’m expected to take from this man. He’s swaying the opinion of my school board members. It’s just unacceptable and it’s just escalating.…This is my only recourse. It’s the only thing I have.” The suit includes tweets from Kleinman on X where he posts under the account @SexHarrassed and accuses Jones of being a groomer, sexualizing children, and, in one from September, says she is carrying a gun to defend herself against parents who object to her sexualizing and indoctrinating children… [h/t Rachel Royce]

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