Library Closes after Skateboard Attack on Worker

Worcester, MA (WorkerCompensation.com) – All of the library branches in Worcester, Mass., closed earlier this month after one of the workers was attacked.

Officials said the worker at the main branch was attacked with a skateboard on Aug. 8 about an hour before the library closed. After the unprovoked attack, all of the libraries were closed. Officials said the worker received treatment for their injuries that were not believed to be critical.

According to the Worcester Police Department, the library patron responsible for the attack was taken into custody.

"The safety and security of all library employees and patrons is of the utmost importance," City Manager Eric Batista said in a statement. "The administration has worked closely with library leadership to meet the changing needs of patrons and users of the Worcester Public Library, including the creation of a community resources department, which has been staffed with a community liaison, two security officers, and a social worker."

All of the workers at the library branches have been trained on “trauma informed de-escalation techniques,” he said.

The attack comes as library workers around the country are seeing attacks escalate.

In Kalispell, Mont., a woman allegedly bit and punched two library workers in early July.

Officials said the worker asked 54-year-old Bobbie Rae Nielsen if she needed any help shortly after the library opened on July 2. Nielsen then began to make a scene, Kalispell Police Chief Jordan Venezio said, tearing things off the walls and then attacking the library worker.

Venezio said Nielsen punched one worker and then bit another one trying to intervene. The incident happened prior to the branch’s security guard arriving for duty. A staff report from Flathead County Library Public Services Librarian Tony Edmundson said a patron then helped the librarians to hold Nielsen down until police officers arrived.

Edmundson wrote that the attack was one of the library system’s “worst fears realized.” Library officials have said the number of incidents over the last few years have increased. As a response, the system has contracted with Alert Security to have security guards present in branches for 35 hours a week.

Since then, the staff has petitioned the Flathead County Library Board of Trustees to increase security coverage to 40 hours a week. Edmundson asked that coverage be expanded to about 50 hours a week. He said he believed the incident would have had a different outcome if security guards had been present.

Library Director Teri Dugan said two managers were put on each shift as a response. Additionally, the library said it would be looking for additional places to put security cameras and had changed Wi-Fi hours to discourage loitering.

The board’s chair David Ingram said having a full-time onsite security guard would cost the library an added $18,000 a year. Currently, the library is spending $73,000 a year on security. Trustees asked Dugan to report back on how the implemented security measures are working. They also asked her to put together a list of costs associated with training and other security measures the library’s staff would like to see.

Dugan said that adding a panic button may help, but since the police department is across the street, response times are already fast.

Another attack at the Central Library in San Antonio, left the library system looking to the police department for help. During 2023, the library saw 18 assaults at its downtown campus. In response, Central Library’s board of trustees approved a six-month pilot program partnering with the San Antonio Police Department to supplement its security staff.

“While the library is a welcoming and safe place, some things had happened that we needed to address,” Central Library interim assistant to the director Haley Holmes said.

Holmes said in mid-May that anecdotal evidence showed the pilot program resulted in fewer assaults.

Earlier this year in New Jersey, lawmakers introduced legislation that would protect library employees from harassment. The measure came after librarians faced additional attacks after school districts were called on to ban books or remove them from their library shelves. The legislation would protect librarians from being sued if a school district chooses not to take a book off its shelves.

Last year, school librarians came under attack, both physical and online, when groups like Moms for Liberty called for libraries to take books they believed to be inappropriate for children.

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