This is the first story of a multi-part series by Cap City News. Part II will publish Wednesday, Oct. 9.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — In fall 2022, Cheyenne parent Marcie Kindred began to hear rumors that Laramie County School Board 1 Board of Trustees was considering making changes to its library policies.
Kindred heard the public school district was attempting to alter its rules in an effort to give parents more control over the content their children are exposed to. She began to attend meetings, connect with other concerned parents and provide feedback to trustees.
Eventually, the school board made its vision clear. At the time, parents could enroll their children in an “Open Access” or “No Access” option. In addition, a guardian could communicate with librarians if they didn’t want their child to check out certain books or authors.
But for more than a year, trustees have communicated to the public they wanted to add two new options: “No Access to Materials Containing Sexually Explicit Content” and “Parent/Guardian Limited Access.” In addition, the board would compose and enforce its own definition for “sexually explicit content.”
Kindred wouldn’t have a problem with granting more parental control, but she saw a problem — or rather, a lack thereof. She believed parents already wielded sufficient control over their kids. To Kindred, the school board was not addressing any existing issue.
“They claimed it was about parental control, but we argued the control was already there,” Kindred told Cap City News. “In our view, this was about forcing one set of personal beliefs on the entire district, undermining professional librarians who are trained to ensure age-appropriate materials, and adding unnecessary work and stress to their already overburdened plates.”
Fast forward to fall 2024. Those proposed rules that took years of discussion, research, public feedback and revisions are now codified in district policy. In a 4–2 vote, board trustees passed the district’s first library policy, colloquially known as the “Opt-In Policy,” in December 2023; in August, they OK’d a second policy, called the “Procurement Policy,” which prohibits librarians from adding any books containing “sexually explicit content” to their collections.
Many members of the public, including Kindred, are not pleased about these new rules. And many people — educators, trustees and parents included — have expressed concern that the district is slipping toward book banning, a phenomenon that has recently reached mainstream attention nationwide, as well as within the Cowboy State and nationwide. For instance, Natrona, Fremont and Park counties have dealt with their own book battle controversies. Campbell County’s public library system has proposed similar changes to its policies as those found at LCSD1. And in August, Utah became the first state to remove books from school libraries at a statewide level.
Those who stand in opposition to the district’s new policies say the school board is overstepping its power by encroaching on a student’s ability to access ideas. Parents and other community members have banded together to discuss book controversies in public forums, such as the Facebook page “LCSD1 Books in Context.” Community members formed a local nonpartisan organization, Wyoming Family Alliance for Freedom, in 2023 in direct response to the school board meetings. Kindred is one of the founding members.
Those who support the policies argue that restrictions on library access help bolster parental rights and keep questionable content out of students’ grasp. One such advocate is Patricia McCoy, who started taking interest in local school board meetings around the same time as Kindred. A mother of four children, McCoy started to see Facebook posts from the national organization Moms for Liberty during the global COVID-19 lockdowns. She saw videos and posts in her social feeds from other parents unhappy with their local school regulations, such as mandatory masking.
But over the past few years, McCoy has spent many hours addressing a separate issue: explicit content in public school libraries. She has been a regular at the LCSD1 Board of Trustees meetings to voice her discontent about books she says impose an ideology on children.
“I am accepting, I am tolerant to an extent,” McCoy told Cap City News. “I will let you believe what you believe, I will let you do what you want to do until you try to force it on my children — until you tell me I have to believe the same way that you do. That’s not OK.”
Other influential stakeholders stand by McCoy’s mission to expose and flag books with controversial content. School board candidates, a Cheyenne-based policy organization and individuals running for county and state offices have condemned objectionable content in public school libraries.
Which argument has more ground among county residents? Do the majority want additional safeguards in school libraries, or do they want school board officials to keep their hands off? The district sought answers.
Last fall, the district held a public comment period for its Opt-In Policy. Parents, teachers and students submitted more than 1,500 comments, and a clear message prevailed: The public did not want this policy to pass. After analyzing the comments, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle found that 77% of the submitted statements opposed the Opt-In Policy.
Earlier this year, the district hosted a public comment forum for its second library policy, colloquially known as the “Procurement Policy.” This second policy prohibits librarians from purchasing new books containing “sexually explicit content,” a definition that the Opt-In Policy established. Cap City News examined the roughly 200 comments and found that 68% disapproved of the Procurement Policy.
“In our view, this was about forcing one set of personal beliefs on the entire district, undermining professional librarians who are trained to ensure age-appropriate materials, and adding unnecessary work and stress to their already overburdened plates.”
This feedback is consistent with research from the Knight Foundation, which finds that around two-thirds of Americans oppose efforts to restrict access to books. Despite this, the board voted to pass the policies.
Some have argued the board acted in open defiance of the public’s will. And according to Kindred, the board’s book policy decisions have led to apathy.
“You’ll notice that [the comments] are significantly less,” Kindred said. “Folks have completely lost hope in this board. And many folks are saying, ‘What’s the point?’ … [The board has] completely ignored the part of the political process that involves public input. And they’ve made it clear that they’re going to do whatever they want, regardless of what this community wants.”
That said, trustees did integrate public feedback and softened some of the language in its Opt-In Policy. In the final draft, the board altered the policy so that books containing explicit content would only be removed from elementary libraries. Originally, those titles would have been removed from both elementary and junior high collections. In addition, trustees softened language to lessen liability for classroom educators.
Throughout this week, Cap City News will publish a story each day that homes in on a different facet of the LCSD1 school board policies. The five-part series will examine the following topics:
- What the policies say and the arguments for and against them
- How the policies are affecting district staff
- How organizations and Wyoming elected officials are invested in public school library access
- The potential for lawsuits, other education-related issues community members would rather focus on, and the role and responsibility of board trustees
This story will be updated with links to other stories in this series as they become available.
- 2. “Parental rights, deviations from state statute at the heart of book policy disagreements”
- 3. “‘They have no idea what we do’: District librarian, educators, say book policies foster environment of unease”
- 4. “Groups with national ties, Wyo state officials intensify debate over books in schools”
- 5. “Book policy fallout: Community debates school district’s future”
Correction, Oct. 8, 2024: This story was updated to correct a statement about the disrict’s former library policy. A statement was added to clarify that parents could communicate to librarians about books or authors they didn’t want their child to access. A previous version of the story said the only two library options were “Open Access” and “No Access.”
