(WASHINGTON) -- On Thursday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a finding of probable cause that 12 Minneapolis public librarians were subjected to a sexually hostile work environment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when they were exposed to pornography on the Internet.

``We knew it was just a matter of time before some dedicated librarians would stand up to the American Library Association and rescue their library. Our hats are off to the 'Minneapolis 12,''' said Jan LaRue, senior director of Legal Studies at the Family Research Council. ``The EEOC's decision is both legally correct and amply justified.''

Minneapolis librarians have complained of hard-core pornographic Web sites left visible on Internet terminals, graphic printouts left on tables and youngsters exposed to images of bestiality and child rape. Patrons have also complained that anyone walking through the library could see pornography on computers.

Very few libraries have utilized blocking technology on computers due to the policies and pressure of the American Library Association (ALA), which promotes unrestricted access by anyone, regardless of age, to all of the materials available on the Internet regardless of content, including the most deviant pornography.

``A public library is supposed to be a place dedicated to quiet, to knowledge, and to beauty, not a dirty peep show open to kids and funded by taxpayers. The ALA resists doing what's constitutional and common sense: don't bring into the library through cyberspace what would never be stocked on the bookshelves. ALA bureaucrats don't work in libraries -- they don't have to clean up after the porn or be threatened with a knife by a porn-surfing addict who's been told his time on the computer is up,'' LaRue said.

LaRue called on library boards across the country to utilize blocking technology to keep illegal pornography from turning their library into a sexually hostile work environment like Minneapolis. ``If anyone thinks Minneapolis is an isolated incident, they need to read FRC's publication, 'Dangerous Access 2000 Edition: Uncovering Internet Pornography in America's Libraries,' which is available online at http://www.frc.org ,'' said LaRue.