By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – One of the candidates for the St. Tammany library director position is facing additional problems following her interview last week when she was one of the four finalists for the parish director’s position.
After all four interviews later in the afternoon, she got into a verbal confrontation with a regular attendee at parish government meetings, pushing the man at the end of their discussion, which led to a police report filed against her. That news has now reached Washington Parish President Ryan Seal and he confirms that the investigation is now being conducted.
Sonnet Ireland, currently the library director for Washington Parish, was among the four finalists for the St. Tammany library director job. She was already well known at St. Tammany Library Board of Control (LBOC) meetings for occasionally speaking during public commentaries throughout the three-year controversy over sexually explicit books that were found available to minors in the parish library branches.
Ireland sided with the liberal side of the issue, consistently supporting the books remaining on the shelves, available to minors with no parental approval. The books included dozens that had graphic sexual content and story lines, including many in the children’s sections that supported the gay, lesbian and transgender lifestyles.
The former library board, along with former Director Kelly LaRocca, consistently supported the argument to leave the books where they were, while conservatives rallied to meetings and asked for the books to be moved to a restricted section that would need parental approval. After two years of the controversy, the Parish Council appointed a new Library Board that led to a New Adult section where the books are now restricted, not banned.
Ireland, who used to work in the St. Tammany system before getting the job as director for Washington Parish, regularly supported the position of the former board, as well as LaRocca.
When Ireland was selected as one of four finalists for the St. Tammany job, she was called in for an interview last Wednesday, and noted early in her interview in front of the Library Board, “I did not expect to be chosen, but wanted to be here to ensure things were done properly.”
After her interview, then later in the day after the other three interviews were concluded, Ireland was leaving the meeting and confronted Devin McGee, a frequent attendee and commenter at public meetings. McGee said Ireland “approached me on two occasions to sexually harass and physically assault me.”
Ireland has claimed online that McGee is stalking her, and during their confrontation heard on an audio recording, is heard to make a sexual remark to McGee about the size of his penis, following by, “and you can s— me.” You can then hear what sounds like a slap against another person’s clothes.
A St. Tammany Parish Councilman informed Washington Parish President Seal of the situation, and the audio tape of the comments made by Ireland and McGee has been forwarded to that office.
“The parish government here was made aware of the situation,” Washington Parish Public Information Officer Danielle Folks said. “We are conducting interviews now to determine all the facts, but at this time we cannot comment further since it is a personnel situation.”
McGee said he has had few encounters with Ireland, but has posted on Social Media to criticize her stance on the St. Tammany book issue, as well as her job in Washington Parish.
When Ireland was finally leaving the confrontation, McGee said, “she pushed me on my shoulder,” which led to him filing a complaint with the Madisonville Police Department, alleging assault, since the meeting was held at the Madisonville library.
“To me, she was retaliating because I made a public comment to the board after all the interviews and insinuated the criticism was aimed at her, which it was,” he said. “But I never even said her name.”
Ireland also made an attempt during the sexually explicit book controversy in St. Tammany from 2020 to 2022, to get advertisers to stop supporting The Slidell Independent. She mailed letters to dozens of advertisers in this newspaper, criticizing the coverage on the book issue, claiming it was “lies.” She asked all the businesses to stop advertising in the paper, but none of them did.
The newspaper published her letter and denied the allegations of the coverage, claiming the news stories were factual.
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