The cuts to hours at Somerville’s Central Library to avoid disruptive and violent teen behavior took many by surprise, including city councilors now coming together to press for solutions.
A meeting at 6 p.m. Monday brings together councilors as the Public Health and Public Safety Committee to propose a community discussion, examine the problem and support staff.
The City of Somerville said Aug. 27 that the library will close temporarily from 2 to 4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays – a year and a half after staff started reporting “inappropriate behavior” by some patrons, mostly teens after school. Councilors responded at a Sept. 12 meeting in an exchange with Neha Singh, director of intergovernmental affairs for the Mayor’s Office.
While there’s no specific liaison assigned by the mayor to the library, there has been communication between library leadership and the city before announcements are made, and the city is working closely with library staff to coordinate solutions, Singh said.
“The frustration I have, and I think a lot of people have had in this community, is the lack of transparent communication about what is going on and the lack of bringing people together so we can work toward solutions that meet everyone’s needs,” councilor Willie Burnley Jr. said.
Since the city’s announcement said the library won’t bring back hours until it’s safe, councilor Judy Pineda Neufeld asked Singh how that would be defined.
When staff and patrons feel safe again, the library will be safe enough to reopen full time, Singh said, assuring councilors that the Mayor’s Office is taking steps toward that: Cameras are installed and the city is interviewing for a library social worker and working on implementing after-school programming.
“Our library leadership has been working with city and [Somerville Public Schools] staff to add both indoor and outdoor programming at the Central Library during the dismissal hours to provide positive outlets to our youth. We have also started conversations with the Children’s Cabinet to invite new partners to the table that are focused on youth wellness and safety,” Singh said.
The Mayor’s Office is looking for city-owned spaces that could be developed into a teen center using money designated in the year’s budget. Opening a center is an “urgent priority,” Singh said. The Cummings School, 42 Prescott St., Prospect Hill, is identified as a possible space.
Support for staff
Once the dismissal bell rings, approximately 1,300 high school students head out of the building on Central Hill between City Hall and the library. Some have extracurriculars to pursue or go to the library to study; those without structured activities are left on their own. A teen center could be a safe and constructive place for kids after school, the officials said.
“If we continue to not prioritize this, we would be failing our youth over and over again. I think the pandemic has had real negative consequences on our youth: social, emotional, academic development. Expanding our youth program is a great way to promote youth leadership, intergenerational connection and build a sense of belonging,” councilor Naima Sait said.
Neufeld said she’s been “raising the alarm on the need for a youth and teen center” since election to the council.
Jake Wilson, an at-large councilor, said the library’s closing is an emotional issue that’s been developing for some time. “The fact that the Central Library has been overwhelmed like this is proof of that failure. To our librarians, I’m sorry we failed to act earlier to ensure that you had a safe and respectful workplace. Let’s make sure we fix that. To our city’s youth, I’m sorry we failed you by not giving you places and programs that you need,” Wilson said.
Council president Ben Ewen-Campen was another voice speaking to the urgency for a solution.
“Everyone in Somerville loves our libraries, and especially loves the people who work for our libraries, who make them run. Everyone knows what an incredibly important and irreplaceable public resource our libraries are,” Ewen-Campen said.
The failure to act has resulted in collective punishment, councilor Matthew McLaughlin said: “The residents are being punished. The youth are being punished. The librarians are being punished. Everyone’s being punished because we’re afraid to face addressing the actual aggressors and deal with the aggression at hand,” McLaughlin said.
Calling in police
Libraries are a safe space for many, offering Internet access and connecting people with resources, but those services are less available due to the closing – and McLaughlin had sharp questions about how long the library closing would go on as a punishment for all if no concrete changes were implemented.
“Everything you all talk about is the long-term solution. There’s a short-term solution that can open the library tomorrow, and if that solution is off the table, then I think we all kind of got to bite our tongue and wait to see how many months or years we’re going to have before the youth and the people in the city are allowed to use a public library,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin proposed having a police officer patrol the library from 2 to 4 p.m. to show that certain behavior won’t be tolerated. “We cannot possibly have a police detail up at the stomach library?” he said. “Because that might be worse than someone coming in with a bloody face begging for help from librarians who are incapable of stopping children from throwing books at them and firecrackers?”
Ewen-Campen noted that police have been called to library, and Singh said the Mayor’s Office placed a police cruiser near the library this year at staff’s request. Based on “the experience from that brief period, we did not think that the PD presence was deescalating the situation,” Singh said.
The library disruptions and recent troubles with behavior in Davis Square are because “people have gotten the message in the city that there are no consequences for any actions,” McLaughlin said. Still, he had “real sympathy for the kids who are doing this,” he said. “I hope that we can reach them and get them to realize that they are hurting themselves. They’re hurting other people that hurt in the community. They’re hurting themselves as well.”
“But ultimately, my sympathies lie with the true victims: the librarians and the other kids who are going there to learn,” McLaughlin said.
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I don’t know what the ACAB wokists thought would happen when suddenly there is no consequences for anti social behavior.
I do know what did end up happening, and it isn’t surprising in the slightest.
Shame on Somervilles feckless mayor
You bring the library back by putting police officers in the library– not in cars on the street; inside the building– and arrest troublemakers until they either move elsewhere or all are arrested.
What am I missing here?
Hundreds of kids disenfranchised because the mayor and police do not have the resolve to make 2 or 3 arrests for violent behavior