Louisiana liar and Harasser Apologizes to Librarian
Amanda Jones has been fighting back against the extremist activists in Louisiana who have been lying about librarians and harassing them for years.
During the July 11, 2022, library board meeting for the Livingston Parish Library, public school librarian Amanda Jones spoke out against an attempt to remove LGBTQ books from the public library in her hometown.
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Her plea drove at least two other attendees to target Jones on social media. Ryan Thames, the executive director for Citizens for a New Louisiana, a conservative organization, and Lunsford, who runs a blog called “Bayou State of Mind,” accused Jones of being a groomer and advocating that pornographic and erotic material be provided to children. They also alleged that she was championing teaching 11-year-olds how to have anal sex.
Neither of which was true.
Jones then received death threats and other disturbing communications as a result of being labeled as a pedophile and a criminal through Thames and Lunsford’s online harassment campaign.
Now, Ryan Thames is apologizing for lying about Amanda Jones in a video here.
For Amanda Jones, this was never about money—it was about integrity.
She is grateful that the false statements have been publicly corrected and that the truth is now clear.
She hopes this outcome serves as a reminder that words carry weight and that accountability matters.
It’s not okay to target and defame librarians but people like Thames and Lunsford do it to score political points, defund libraries, and ban books. It's easy for them to raise money if they can scare the public with lies about librarians and libraries.
These are the kinds of lies, harassment, and attacks that librarians are facing all over the country.