Bathroom business: Library wants stricter policy

05:41 PM CDT on Monday, April 25, 2005

By Dan Lauck / 11 News

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It's customary that we have to be quiet in the library, but the rules of conduct could get more specific if the Houston Public Library has its way.

Officials want city approval to write up some new behavior policies including monitoring what you do in the restroom.

KHOU-TV

The Houston Public Library wants to put a stop to bathing and dressing its bathrooms.

The library house rules haven't officially been changed since 1981.

"Quite a bit has changed since then," says the Houston Public Library's Sandra Fernandez.

The homeless, for example, in 1981 didn't view the city library as a public shower.

Now, some do.

"Unfortunately, a few get carried away," says patron Mike Kane.

"They're washing clothes in the sink," says patron Thomas Goutier, "Y'know, dirty socks."

Kane and Goutier come to the central library a couple days a week to read or use the Internet. They've seen the change.

"There was one gentleman who'd go upstairs and it looked like he'd take a full bath up there," says Kane. "I saw him do it several times, and I was not too enthused about it."

It was for the vast majority of its patrons that library officials decided to officially prohibit anyone from using the restrooms for bathing, shaving and changing clothes.

But there is a question of how to take this. Brushing your teeth is not mentioned in the new rules, even though that might offend some people.

"It's not our goal to ban anyone from the library," says Fernandez. "It's not our goal to limit access to anyone. What we ask is that they not repeat the behavior."

Goutier says that sometimes the sights and smells are more than most people would like to bear.

City councilman Gordon Quan said he is concerned about the way the homeless will be treated if the new rules pass city council Wednesday.

But Kane and Goutier say they have never seen homeless mistreated by library security officers.