Masking Some Crazy Rage

I work as a librarian at a university. The health crisis has only been in full swing for a few months, and the university has tasked its employees with enforcing a mask and social distancing mandate. For us in the library, this involves doing regular rounds to check for patron compliance. This quickly devolves into us playing mind games with the patrons to try and catch them off-guard, as most of them attempt to pull their masks up the moment they see or hear us approach, but that’s a story for another time. The majority of our patrons clearly hate the mandate and do not hesitate to express this, but ultimately, they tend to cooperate in the short term.

We have a three-strike rule, where any given patron will be warned each time they are caught in non-compliance. If they incur three infractions during any single day, their name and ID numbers are to be reported to [Administrative Organization] and they are then asked to leave the facility.

On one particular day, the building is fairly quiet. There is a patron who I catch maskless several times; since he is alone in a rather open area, I opt to give him an extra chance in addition to the default three strikes in hopes that he will comply with the mandate. However, on the fourth time I catch him with it off, I bite the bullet and confront him.

Me: “Hello again. May I please see your student ID?”

The patron immediately becomes defensive, but he does hand over his ID card. I begin writing his information down.

Patron: “There’s no one here. I’m alone. The mask keeps fogging up my glasses. How do you expect me to see anything?”

Me: “Unfortunately, we do still have to follow university protocol.”

Patron: “Well, your protocols are stupid.”

There’s a short, tense silence before he continues.

Patron: “So, what’s going to happen next?”

Me: “This information will be forwarded to [Administrative Organization]. As they do not brief us on how it will be handled, I do not know what will happen from there.”

Patron: “Well, I don’t really care.”

I want to ask, “Then why did you ask?” but I remain silent.

I finish collecting pertinent information and hand his card back to him. He then leaves. I file the required report and carry on with my regular duties.

Fast-forward two weeks. It’s one of my days off, so I’m not in the library myself, but [Supervisor] is. I am out getting groceries when I hear from [Supervisor] about this; the exchange below is my understanding of what occurred.

The same patron from before comes to the front desk, where [Supervisor] is currently stationed, with a sheet of paper.

Patron: “Does [My Name] work here?”

Supervisor: “Yes, she does.”

Patron: *Pointing to the document in his hand* “I don’t agree with this!”

The document is, reportedly, an order from [Administrative Organization] to attend some form of hearing and pay a fine. It includes a copy of the report I filed two weeks ago… with my name on it.

Supervisor: “Is the information in the report factual?”

Patron: “It might be factual, but I still don’t agree with it!”

The patron then walks away, but not before announcing that he will not pay the fine and cannot make the hearing date. He then starts belittling me as he leaves.

An hour later, on his way out of the building, he stops again at the front desk.

Patron: “Tell [My Name] I said hello.”

The patron then left the building.

For a while after this, I frequently found myself glancing over my shoulder, especially to and from my car before and after work. Thankfully, nothing happened. [Supervisor] reached out to the library administrators about it, and they quickly gave us permission to remove [Patron] from the building if he ever interacted with us poorly again. He never did.

All of this because of a mask.