Discontent among staff: Greenville County Library lost 5 employees every month in 2022

Tory Sherrill attended library board meetings in hopes of a resolution.

The 31-year-old librarian had been part of the system for seven years. But her world turned upside down last year when the Greenville County Library Board ordered staff members to take down Pride month displays, kickstarting a year-long battle over the presence of LGBTQ-friendly materials in public libraries.

The political turmoil came too close to home when Library Board Chair Allan Hill walked into the Travelers Rest library branch last fall after he received complaints about the library’s banned books display.

Nothing has been the same since.

“A lot of the time I feel like I am moving outside of myself, like I'm watching something happen in a movie,” Sherrill told the News.

She was the team lead at the Travelers Rest Library at the time.

The brightest place in her world felt cold. Soon, she began wondering each day if the next would be her last at her job.

Sherrill resigned on Oct. 2. The first weekday of National Banned Books Week. She said the disruptive environment and the leadership's reverence for a religious viewpoint made it difficult for her to continue.

GCLS data showed staff turnover grew worse every time the library system grappled with religious and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. On average, three employees left the Greenville County Library System every month in 2018 when the yearly turnover rate was 12%, the Greenville News found.

The turnover rate is representative of staff members who have resigned, been discharged or retired.

There was a spike in 2019 when controversy surrounding a drag queen story hour at the Five Forks branch resulted in the dismissal of the branch manager. But by 2022, when the Pride Month display issue began to take centerstage, the turnover rate jumped to 20.4%.

Monthly HR reports shared with the Greenville News showed that five library staffers left or retired from the system every month on average.

The turnover is expected to be worse this year.

Since July 2023, in the first three months of the new financial year, monthly HR reports showed 21 employees have already left the Greenville County Library System. Sherrill was one of them.

Civil rights advocates and current employees feel the staff turnover rate is indicative of continual discontent in the library system when GCLS became embroiled in challenges to books and LGBTQ+ friendly displays.

Previous reporting from The News shows employees complain that these issues are often exacerbated by the library board’s conservatism. They question the board’s credentials and their ability to govern a public library system.

Five LGBTQ+ employees interviewed by the News spoke of their fears of being outed and suffering retribution for their identity. They said they did not feel safe enough to be their true selves in their own workplace.

At its core, current and former employees say the growing discontent with library leadership stems from the leadership’s choice to go against the professional expertise of librarians.

It led to the departure of a board member and one employee, Victoria Slessman, last year.

Now, more are considering leaving.

“I don't read, hardly at all,” Sherrill said in June. “It's really hard to focus on hobbies anymore outside of work because I'm so exhausted after work from dealing with all this. There have been periods where it has gotten better."

But the events from last year, when Hill confronted her about library materials, proved to be a turning point.

New public records show Hill compared LGBTQ+ materials to pornography

Last year, during a public meeting, Hill's interactions with the Travelers Rest branch employees raised questions of whether his personal viewpoints were affecting his leadership. Back then, Hill publicly asked then-manager, Nathan Schmaltz, whether he threatened or bullied an employee. Schmaltz had not signed up to speak.

"Your position on this board,” Schmaltz said then, “and your actions and your words toward staff were interpreted and felt as threatening and intimidating."

The News used public records to piece together the events of the night from complaints made by three employees. The News reached out to Hill for his side of the story. He did not make himself available despite repeated efforts.

On 8:35 p.m., Sept. 21, 2022,. Hill walked into the Travelers Rest branch with his wife.

Sherrill was shelving books when she saw Hill and ran out of the workroom to call Schmaltz. Outside, Hill and his wife examined the "Banned Books" display.

Every year, since 1982, the American Library Association has kicked off a “banned book week” to commemorate the freedom to read and advocate against censorship in libraries and schools. Last fall, Sherrill and other employees from the branch created a display as an homage to the annual event and made a handout with the ALA’s top 10 challenged books of 2021. The list contained critically acclaimed classics such as Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” and Alex Gino’s “George."

There were also resources for patrons to get books not available in the library. One such resource, the Brooklyn Public Library’s free library card initiative, became a cause of disagreement. Based on three accounts, Hill and his wife gestured at the handout several times and objected to the promotion of “inappropriate books” to patrons.

“You’re not encouraging people to read these banned books right?” Hill asked the employees.

As Hill explained that he had received several complaints from patrons, Hill’s wife circled the library and interjected, “What if a child got a hold of (handout) without their parent knowing?”

Hill brought up an issue the library faced two decades ago when library leadership was concerned that homeless people would access pornography. They soon put filters up on internet access as a precautionary measure. But Hill’s comparison of LGBTQ+ friendly materials with pornography did not sit well with Sherrill.

Sherrill knew of LGBTQ+ employees in the system. She had worked with them, built a support system and was pained by the notion that her coworkers were being characterized as people who would bring harm to children.

“The entire framing of the conversation was that ‘those kinds of books’ about ‘those kinds of people’ are inherently bad and the titles shouldn’t be even printed on a paper near children,” Sherrill wrote in her complaint.

The Greenville County Library’s collection development policy states that librarians are not responsible for what children read. As a public library, their main job was to make information accessible to local communities.

Soon, Schmaltz arrived at the library to answer Hill’s questions.

When it was almost closing time, Hill looked at the employees and said that he appreciated everything the staff did. “I’m not trying to make this me versus you,” Hill said, adding that the board and staff were on the same side.

Anxiety overcame Sherrill’s best defenses. She broke down. Hill saw Sherrill cry and said, “I can tell by your face you don’t think that."

Once Hill left, Sherrill walked to the back and searched for a semblance of peace. Meanwhile, another employee, who also filed a complaint, had another realization.

“The removal of LGBTQ books is a removal of that person. Hiding ‘those’ books away is a way of hiding LGBTQ people away,” the employee wrote in their complaint. “I am one of those people. I have never been truly afraid in a workplace and that night I was too afraid to speak.”

The employee took meticulous notes of Hill’s interaction with Sherrill, Schmaltz and other staff. They had begun fearing they were about to lose their job.

“I no longer see GCLS as a safe place as an LGBTQ employee thanks to the action of our board during pride and especially when confronted directly with S. Allan Hill,” they said at the end of their complaint.

Employees: display policies stymie creativity, made LGBTQ+ employees a target

When Sherrill looks at the culture war issues plaguing the library, she can’t help but reflect on her own past.

“I was raised really conservatively,” Sherrill said. “It was really patriarchal. So I was not raised to be independent or to be able to take care of myself.”

She was homeschooled in classical education and always thought she would get married at 18 to a husband who would take care of her. Growing up, though she had a sheltered life, her parents did allow her to go to the local library.

The books at the library and the internet access acted as a window to the outside world. They educated her and opened her eyes to the outside world.

When she went to school at Bob Jones University, she took English. She had never written a paper before.

“But my professor said ― I could tell you are a reader,” she recalled.

“Reading really saved me from a lot of lack of education. So libraries have always been a really important part of my life,” she said.

When she became a librarian, she imagined doing the same for others.

At the Travelers Rest branch, Sherrill saw people who lived in rural areas with spotty internet service come down, daily, to check their email. Apart from recommending books, Sherrill has helped patrons work on their resumes and job applications.

“You can't just go and get a paper application, you have to apply online, right?” she said.

One employee, who wished to remain anonymous in fear of retribution, said the display boards served as an outlet of artistic creativity for several library employees.

“We don't just do LGBTQ+ displays, we do so many other things,” the employee said.

Another said they were bitter they were unable to showcase an Asian America Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month display. The Board introduced a temporary policy this year where library staff could make displays on generic topics like “organizing your closet” or “top waterfalls around the Upstate” in an attempt to create displays where it didn't look like the staff was taking a position on an issue.

“I printed out so many flags with labels. I had all my books. It was one of my most my favorite things (the AAPI display). All I've ever wanted to do is be able to do something like this and make displays,” they said.

And then there were the children.

“If a small child comes in and they really want a dragon book, or a princess book, or a dog book, and you can find one for them, and the look on their face is just one of absolute delight and pleasure,” Sherrill said.  “It's little interactions like that that make me not want to lose my job.”

Following Hill’s visit last year and the HR complaints, Ann Bishop, Greenville County Library’s HR manager investigated to see if Hill had violated workplace harassment prevention policies.

Bishop, per an email exchange between herself and Schmaltz, met with Hill and Library Executive Director Beverly James to discuss the concerns in the complaints. She also watched video recordings from the branch. The video did not include sound, so Bishop relied on body language, stances and movements.

After a review of the footage and documents, Bishop concluded Hill’s visit to the library was not inappropriate. The HR response does not mention his wife’s presence.

Fears of unemployment were also dismissed. Bishop said only James had the power to hire, terminate or discipline employees.

Shmaltz challenged Bishop’s findings.

He questioned Bishop’s judgment of the video footage and said deducing whether the “staff were not visibly frightened, or Mr. Hill was not noticeably aggressive or belligerent, does not take the whole of the encounter into account.”

Schmaltz also said that it was disheartening to have staff experiences discounted and disregarded, while Mr. Hill’s behavior was characterized as “only asking questions."

Library boards across the state and in the U.S. are caught up in debates surrounding censorship as staff and trustees seek to find a middle ground.

Several Library Board members have attended national training, so they have a sense of the profession and its values.

However, such training is optional, University of South Carolina Professor Nicole Cook said, adding that there is a lack of checks and balances when it comes to the interests and influence of board members, often appointed by local governments such as the county council.

“Regrettably, what the Greenville staff are going through is not uncommon, and it’s absolutely a loss to the community when these amazing library professionals leave the system,” Cook continued.

Since last year, the Travelers Rest branch has lost five employees to the turmoil. Sherrill knew there would be more resignations.

This year, the library has been at the center of yet another Pride Month debate, where board members asked employees to take down displays yet again. Schmaltz refused the first time. But he later acquiesced and resigned citing family reasons.

The Greenville County Library System then hired Ray Arnett, a senior pastor at the Fellowship Baptist Church of Anderson, as Schmaltz's successor. The News could not reach Arnett via phone calls. An email sent to GCLS was not answered by the time of publication.

Sherrill had spent years coming to terms with her own religious background in her personal life. Now, religion had started inching its way into her professional life.

"He is an active pastor in a conservative space," Sherrill said about Arnett and her decision to leave.

"That was just really triggering to me."

Devyani Chhetri covers SC politics for the Greenville News. You can reach her at dchhetri@gannett.com or @ChhetriDevyani on X.

Savannah Moss covers Greenville County politics and growth & development. Reach her at smoss@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Greenville County Library faces high turnover. Why staff are leaving.