A California library that made headlines after one of its employees kicked out speakers during an event about protecting women’s sports last week was the target of another bomb threat.
On Monday, the Mary L. Stephens branch of the Yolo County Library in Davis was evacuated and nearby schools were given a shelter-in-place order after a threat was received in an email containing hate speech, police said.
Police confirmed that the bomb threat, the third in recent days, was received around 10:00 a.m. and that both Davis Senior High School and North Davis Elementary were told to shelter in place while officers swept the building. The order was soon lifted after the premises had been checked and no explosive device found, The Sacramento Bee reported.
Local authorities are collaborating with the FBI to “pinpoint” the individuals who are responsible for the threats.
(Video: YouTube/KCRA)
“It seems likely that these events are related,” said Davis Police Department spokesperson Lt. Dan Beckwith. “They are similar in nature.”
The library was the site of yet another flashpoint in the nation’s acrimonious culture wars when video footage of one of the facility’s librarians shutting down speakers at a forum for “Fair and Safe Sports for Girls” went viral.
In the video, the male employee is seen shutting down former female college athlete Sophia Lorey who was speaking about the transgender war on women’s sports when she was accused of misgendering.
“You were misgendering… You were saying male in female sports.”
A librarian at a Davis, CA public library revoked a group’s reservation a few minutes into the program after the first speaker referred to transgender athletes playing in women’s sports as male.
IG:… pic.twitter.com/pHxql7VrgD
— Jonathan Zachreson (@JZachreson) August 21, 2023
“We don’t want any transgender females being called male in sporting events with females,” Lorey was told by a library official early in the speech, according to The Sacramento Bee. “If that happens, it’s not following our code of conduct and we will ask the person who says it to leave immediately.”
The incident caught the attention of former NCAA swimming star and women’s sports defender Riley Gaines who posted the library’s contact information and urged her 735.5 K Twitter/X followers to call and express their feelings over the silencing of Lorey.
After the LGBTQ+ website Pink News posted a story claiming that her “anti-trans harassment on social media” was linked to a previous bomb threat at the library, Gaines told the outlet to “lawyer up” over its “libel & character assassination.”
Riley Gaines tells online LGBTQ newspaper to ‘lawyer up’ following wild library incident, bomb threat https://t.co/LCVZ2d3x1A via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) August 25, 2023
“The Yolo County Sheriff’s Office is taking these threats with utmost seriousness and is committed to safeguarding our community. Stringent measures, including thorough checks for potential devices within the library, as well as extra patrols are being implemented. Given the library’s proximity to schools, the police department is maintaining close communication with these institutions to keep them informed,” read a statement posted to the Yolo County Sheriff’s Facebook page.
“It’s clear that these threats are meant to disrupt and intimidate our community, particularly affecting the library’s functioning. Despite these acts of intimidation, we stand firm in our support for the library, its dedicated staff, and the individuals who utilize its services, along with those attending the nearby schools,” the statement said. “The Yolo County Sheriff’s Office is actively investigating these incidents, collaborating with the FBI to pinpoint the responsible individual(s).”
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