Safety guidelines for children in La Crosse libraries to be discussed by city board

A city library should be a safe place for kids to be, and leaders of the La Crosse Public Library want that to be the case in their buildings.

Members of the city library board could vote at their August meeting on an updated policy for child safety. For example, a caregiver who accompanies a child to the library could be 16, rather than the current minimum age of 18.

Deputy library director Dawn Wacek says children are still expected to behave themselves at the library.

“Them being a child, makes no difference,” she said. “We’re still going to ask them to leave, if they’re, you know, ripping up materials or climbing the furniture or something like that.”

Wacek says the library staff watches youth spaces, to be sure that adults who don’t have a reason to be in those areas do not go there.

“Our youth spaces are reserved for youth by young people and their caregivers, meaning if you’re an adult who doesn’t have a reason to be in the children’s area, you may be asked to go somewhere else,” Wacek says.

Wacek says library staffers “can’t act as parents” while kids are in one of the city’s library branches.