Moms for Liberty called the cops on a librarian for letting a 17-year-old check out a YA novel

Two members of a Florida chapter of right-wing activist group Moms for Liberty showed up at a local sheriff’s office to report the librarian at an area high school was sharing “pornography” with minors.

The book in question was a young adult novel widely recommended for 14- to 18-year-olds.

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He said it was just “colorful” language.

On October 25, Jennifer Tapley, a school board candidate and member of the Santa Rosa County chapter of Moms for Liberty, called the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office from their lobby.

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“I’ve got some evidence a crime was committed,” Tapley says in an audio recording of the call provided to Popular Information through a public records request.

“Pornography given to a minor in a school. And I would like to make a report with somebody and turn over the evidence.”  

Tapley was accompanied by Tom Gurski, a fellow Moms for Liberty member.

“The only reason we are here,” says Gurski, in body cam video of the sheriff’s interview with the pair, is “a crime is being committed. It’s a third-degree felony. And we’ve got the evidence.”

The popular YA novel, Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout, recounts a battle between humans and gargoyles fighting demons, with an 18-year-old protagonist named Trinity. There’s a make-out scene, and one character almost has sex. The book has been recommended by the Florida Association of Media in Education (FAME), a librarian association’s “Teen Reads” list, and by the School Library Journal. Barnes and Noble rates the book appropriate for 14- to 18-year-olds.

“The governor says this is child pornography,” Gurski says on the video.

“It’s a serious crime,” Tapley adds. “It’s just as serious as if I handed a Playboy to [my child] right now, right here, in front of you. It’s just as serious, according to the law.” 

Under Florida law, a book is “harmful to minors” if it “predominantly appeals to a prurient, shameful, or morbid interest” and is “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material or conduct for minors.”

Gurski said Storm and Fury, an epic novel clocking in at 512 pages, was checked out from Jay High School “by a 17-year-old, which is important because she is a minor.” Offending passages of the book shared with the officers were marked with orange Post-It notes.

In an interview, Armentrout, the book’s author, said Storm and Fury wasn’t written to “incite sexual excitement,” and she was surprised to learn we are “living in an era where, apparently, some adults find it appropriate to contact the police over a fictional book involving gargoyles.”

Tapley told Popular Information that any book that has a “sex scene” is pornography and not “appropriate for minors.” She acknowledged there may be exceptions for “extreme classics,” but, she said, the books Moms for Liberty is targeting are “without significant literary value.” 

The Sheriff’s Office referred the pair’s complaint to the director of safety at Santa Rosa County Florida School District and then quietly closed the case.