A Florida mother running for her local school board allegedly called the police on a pair of school librarians over a book in a bestselling young adult fantasy series — which she compared to a copy of “Playboy.”
“I’ve got some evidence a crime was committed — pornography given to a minor at a school,” Jennifer Tapley, a member of the Santa Rosa County chapter of Moms for Liberty, said in a phone call to the local sheriff’s office on Oct. 25.
“And I would like to make a report with somebody and turn over the evidence,” she said in an audio recording of the phone call obtained by the Popular Information Substack.
Tapley reportedly told the dispatcher she wanted to remain anonymous in public records of her report because she was “afraid of people getting mad at me for doing this.”
But body camera footage from a deputy at the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office showed her and another Moms for Liberty member, Tom Gurski, telling a deputy that a “felony” was committed because a 17-year-old minor had checked out the novel “Storm and Fury” by Jennifer L. Armentrout from a local high school.
“The only reason we are here: A crime is being committed,” Gurski could be seen telling the officers. “It’s a third-degree felony, and we’ve got the evidence.”
He added that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “says this is child pornography. It’s a serious crime.”
At that point, Tapley adds: “It’s just as serious as if I handed a ‘Playboy’ to [my child] right now.”
She showed officers the novel, with the offending passages marked with orange sticky notes.
Tapley then went on to single out Ruth Witter, the head librarian at Santa Rosa County schools, whom she claims is a member of the Stop Moms for Liberty Group — which Tapley alleged has made “death threats” against Moms for Liberty members.
She even mentioned that Witter had posted in a Facebook group called Emerald Coast SWEEP, a local chapter of the national organization Red, Wine and Blue, which Tapley described as “a very liberal activist group of people fighting for abortion rights” that opposes the removal of books from public school libraries.
When asked by Popular Information whether she wants to see the librarian criminally charged, the mom-of-one said it “depends on if there’s intent.”
She said her hope was that the sheriff would tell the librarians “you can’t do this,” and “if you continue to do this, then there would be charges.”
But she added that she “didn’t really want to see anybody have their life ruined.”
Tapley explained to the outlet that she was “scrolling through Facebook” over the summer when she saw a “video of a mom reading a book” that was “really disgusting.”
She later learned there was a Moms for Liberty chapter in her area and joined, Popular Information reported.
As a member of the group, Tapley said she learned that schools had “some really shocking pornographic books in our libraries.”
She said that any book with a “sex scene” is not “appropriate for minors” and claimed that the books Moms for Liberty are asking to be removed from school libraries lack “significant literary value.”
The novel “Storm and Fury,” about an 18-year-old heroine who is losing her vision but learns she can see and talk to ghosts and spirits, contains “some passages with sexual themes, including a few make out sessions, and one where the main character almost has sex,” according to Popular Information.
Still, it was recommended for young adult audiences by groups like the School Library Journal and was even included in the Florida Association of Media in Education’s 2020 – 2021 “Teen Reads” list — meant to “engage” teens and “provide a spur to critical thinking.”
It was written “to educate people on a little-known disease in a fun, suspenseful and adventurous way,” according to author Armentrout, who said she was surprised to hear about the effort to get her book banned.
The author said she was stunned to learn the US is “living in an era where, apparently, some adults find it appropriate to contact the police over a fictional book involving gargoyles.”
Records obtained by Popular Information, however, suggest Tapley and Gurski’s effort to get the novel removed was not successful.
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office referred the matter to the county school district’s director of safety and closed its case, according to Popular Information.
The school district is so far still keeping the book on its shelves, and Dr. Tonya Shepherd, a public information officer at the school district, told the Daily Beast: “To our knowledge, the school librarians have not been interviewed by the police.”
But the duo has previously also filed a report with the Milton, Fl. police over “Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List” by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, which features an LGBTQ character.
Tapley is even running for school board on a platform of removing books containing “harmful content” from school libraries, according to her campaign website.
Still, Tapley insisted to Popular Information she is not “seeking out any books and trying to go to police with it or anything.”
She also claimed she “had no interactions with the sheriff’s office beyond accompanying a citizen there” and “any reporting that states otherwise would be un-factual.”
She even denied the incident in a Facebook post – despite the body camera footage.
“While I can’t help but feel sad for those who have fallen for the poorly-written tabloid hit piece vomited up by an activist lawyer with a name resembling a most unsavory vegetable (to kids at least), I am so grateful for the overwhelming support the true patriots have shown me, I never realized God helped me become effective enough that the other side felt it necessary to reach out to an oafish donkey several states away to distort and fabricate the ‘facts,’” she wrote on Tuesday.
“God has shown me who the true fighters are in this battle for our own children in Santa Rosa County,” she continued. “It has truly separated the wheat from the tares.
“If you are still standing with me, I applaud you. More and more parents are waking up to the woke lies and hateful Antifa-style tactics of the extreme left.
“But a few wolves have revealed themselves too,” she said.
The Post has also reached out to Gurski for comment.
