Wyoming
Cheyenne School District May Pass Wyoming’s Strictest Library Sex Book Policy
CHEYENNE — Wyoming’s largest school district is considering a library book procurement policy for controversial sexually themed materials that, if passed, would likely be the strictest in the state.
Laramie County School District No. 1 in Cheyenne is discussing a policy that would prevent new books containing “sexually explicit content” of any kind from entering elementary schools and discourage them from being included in junior and high school libraries.
People opposed and supportive of the proposed policy agree it would be the most stringent policy in a state where many school districts are tightening their regulations.
What’s defined as sexually explicit relies on a wide-sweeping definition covering all sexual acts.
In short, if a book contains a sex scene, the district’s librarians would be at least discouraged from buying it.
Since the school district established a new policy for identifying books with sexually explicit content in its circulation last year, there have been 21 titles added to it, almost at the high school level. Any member of the public can nominate books for this disclaimer.
“It’s important, because current policies are not being properly followed and have allowed sexually explicit books into our school libraries, a place with which they do not belong,” said Patricia McCoy, chair of the Cheyenne chapter of Moms For Liberty.
Marcie Kindred, one of the lead organizers of Wyoming Family Alliance for Freedom, is opposed to the proposed policy, which she said amounts to a book ban based on too wide a definition of “sexually explicit.”
“Sexually explicit does not mean without value or merit,” she said. “Sexuality is a part of our life. Teenagers are involved in that with their developmental understanding.”
She said the proposed policy also confirms the suspicions she’s had all along about people wanting to revise the district’s library book policies.
“It confirms they’re trying to keep out books they don’t like personally,” Kindred said.
LCSD1 Board of Trustees Chairman Tim Bolin declined to comment on the proposal as it’s still in its 45-day public comment period.
How It Works
Selection of library materials at the elementary level will be supervised by a district librarian or content area coordinator and cannot contain sexually explicit content.
Selections made at the junior and high school level shall be made by district librarians, who must “endeavor” to select materials, whether free or purchased, that do not contain sexually explicit content.
Materials that meet state and or federal legal definitions for pornography or obscenity will not be included in district library collections.
Kindred said this removes the element of parental choice.
A public records request performed by Cheyenne attorney George Powers shows that 29 of the first 33 nominations were made by a single person, according to an op-ed he wrote for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Kindred also pointed to the fact that during an April school board meeting on this topic, an excerpt was read from a sexually explicit book that is not in circulation in any school library in Wyoming, as proof those fighting for the book policy changes are using “misinformation and sensationalism to scare the public into believing their lies.”
When her daughter was a freshman and sophomore at Cheyenne South High School, McCoy said she checked out books with sexually explicit material and knows other parents who have dealt with similar issues.
When McCoy attempted to read a passage from one aloud at a LCSD1 board meeting, Bolin would not let her.
Check-Out Changes
The new policy on procurement would not apply to books already in the library system.
Last year, the LCSD1 board of trustees approved a new policy that removed the district’s “opt-out” policy and replaced it with an “opt-in” policy for checking out sexually explicit books from its school libraries. This changed the responsibility to the parents to actively decide if they want their children to access sexually explicit books rather than only deciding if they don’t want to access them.
Under that change, parents and guardians have an ability to opt-out their children from being allowed to either check out any books flagged for containing sexually explicit content, allow their children to only check out specific titles containing this content, full access without restrictions, or no access to any books.
Context
In 2023, Park County School District 1 in Powell passed a new book selection and adoption policy for its school district. According to the Powell Tribune, this includes considerations such as supporting standards, user appeal, maturity, favorable reviews from “authoritative sources,” diversity of viewpoints, and representation from religious, ethnic and cultural authors.
In addition to the criteria, the librarians there are supposed to take input from stakeholders in accordance with the district’s mission and values.
The school district also created more options for the removal and restriction of existing books by developing a scoring rubric for a book’s content and the creation of a committee to review removal requests.
Sheridan County School District 1 in Big Horn is also considering new policies for removing library books from its shelves.
In Gillette, the head librarian of the Campbell County Public Library System was fired in 2023 after refusing to move contested books from the juveniles’ sections of the libraries to the adult sections.
McCoy said she is very confident the LCSD1 board will approve the new policy.
“I have faith in our community and many people I have spoken with are in favor of the new procurement policy,” she said. “It is up to us as educators, parents, and community members to protect our children’s innocence and allow them to be children.”
The policy’s review period will be open until 4 p.m. May 23. The board of trustees will decide whether to pass the procurement policy at its June 3 meeting.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Two men were detained in Wyoming in connection with a fatal shooting at a downtown Salt Lake hotel that killed one man.
Carlos Chee, 23, and Chino Aguilar, 21, were both wanted for first-degree felony murder after the victim, identified as Christian Lee, 32, was found dead in a room at the Springhill Suites near 600 South and 300 West.
According to warrants issued for their arrest, Chee and Aguilar met with Lee and another woman at the hotel to sell marijuana. During the alleged drug deal, Aguilar allegedly shot and killed Lee after he tried to grab at his gun.
MORE | Shootings
Investigators said they found Lee dead in the room upon arrival, as well as a single shell casing on the floor and a small amount of marijuana on the television stand.
The woman told investigators she had met Chee on a dating app and that he agreed to come to the hotel to sell her marijuana. She had been hanging out with him in the room, which Lee rented for her to use, when Lee asked them to leave. Lee was then shot and killed following a brief confrontation.
Chee and Aguilar allegedly fled the scene in a 2013 Toyota Camry with a Texas license plate that was later found outside of Rock Springs, Wyoming just a few hours later.
The two men were taken into custody and detained at the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office.
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ROCK SPRINGS, Wyoming (KUTV) — A man was hospitalized with critical injuries after he was reportedly shot by a deputy responding to reports of a disturbance.
Deputies with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Rock Springs Police Department responded to the Sweetwater Heights apartment complex in the 2100 block of Century Boulevard just after 4 a.m. on Monday to investigate reports of a disturbance involving an armed individual.
Information that dispatch received indicated that the individual had shot himself. When officials arrived, they found the individual on the balcony of an upstairs apartment “who appeared to have a gunshot wound consistent with the initial report,” a press release states.
MORE | Officer-Involved Shooting
During the encounter, a deputy discharged their weapon and struck the individual.
Emergency medical personnel rendered aid, and the individual was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.
No law enforcement officers or members of the public were injured during the incident.
The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation will conduct an independent investigation.
The deputy who fired their weapon was placed on administrative leave per standard protocol.
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by Maggie Mullen, WyoFile
Albert Sommers, former Wyoming Speaker of the House, announced Thursday he will attempt to reclaim a seat he formerly held for more than a decade in the statehouse.
“Leadership matters,” Sommers, a lifelong cattle rancher, wrote in a press release. “Right now, the Wyoming House is too often focused on division instead of solutions. We need steady, effective leadership that solves problems—not rhetoric and political theater.”
Voters in 2013 first elected Sommers to House District 20, which encompasses Sublette County and an eastern section of Lincoln County. As a lawmaker, Sommers largely focused on health care, education and water issues. Over six terms, he rose through the ranks, serving in leadership positions and chairing committees focused on education funding and broadband.
In his announcement, Sommers highlighted his legislative work to establish funding for rural hospitals, prioritize “responsible property tax relief,” as well as the creation of the Wyoming Colorado River Advisory Committee within the State Engineer’s Office, “to ensure our water users have a voice in critical decisions affecting the Green River Valley,” he wrote.
As speaker, Sommers was a frequent target of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus as well as the DC-based State Freedom Caucus Network, even getting the attention of Fox News and other national, conservative news outlets. They often accused Sommers of not being conservative enough, and criticized him for keeping bills in “the drawer,” which has long been code for the unilateral power a speaker has to kill legislation by holding it back. (The practice of holding bills has been used to a much higher degree under Freedom Caucus leadership.)
In 2023, Sommers used the speaker’s powers to kill bills related to a school voucher program, banning instruction on gender and sexual orientation from some classrooms and criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors. At the time, Sommers defended his decision to hold back “bills that are unconstitutional, not well vetted, duplicate bills or debates, and bills that negate local control, restrict the rights of people or risk costly litigation financed by the people of Wyoming.”
He reiterated that philosophy and defended his record in his Thursday campaign announcement.
“I am a common-sense conservative who believes in getting things done. I support our core industries—oil and gas, ranching, and tourism—and I will continue to fight for the people and natural resources of Sublette County and LaBarge. I am pro-gun, pro-life, pro-family, and pro-education,” Sommers wrote. “I also take seriously my oath to uphold the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions, which means I didn’t support bills that violated those constitutions. I read bills carefully and I voted accordingly.”
Following his term as speaker, Sommers stepped away from the House to run for Senate District 14 in 2024. He lost in the primary election to political newcomer Laura Pearson, a Freedom Caucus-endorsed Republican from Kemmerer, who also won in the general election. Her Senate win coincided with the Freedom Caucus winning control of the House.
“That race didn’t go my way, and I respected the outcome,” Sommers said in a Thursday press release. But “the direction of the Wyoming House,” since then, he said, has “raised serious concerns.”
Sommers pointed to the Freedom Caucus and its budget proposal, which, despite a funding surplus, included major cuts and funding denials. Ahead of the session, the caucus said its sights were set on shrinking spending and limiting the growth of government.
In his Thursday press release, Sommers criticized “decisions that cut food assistance for vulnerable children, reduced business opportunities, slashed funding to the University of Wyoming, eliminated resources for cheatgrass control, denied raises for state employees, and removed positions critical to protecting Wyoming’s water rights.”
Most of those proposals did not make it into the final budget bill.
Sommers also pointed to a controversy that dominated the 2026 session after a Teton County conservative activist handed out campaign checks to lawmakers on the House floor. Lawmakers in both chambers unanimously voted to ban such behavior before a House Special Investigative Committee found that the exchange did not violate the Wyoming Constitution nor did it amount to legislative misconduct. A Laramie County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation is still underway.
But “controversies like ‘Checkgate’ undermined public trust, and decorum in the House deteriorated,” Sommers said.
“Transparency and accessibility will remain central to how I serve,” Sommers said. “As I’ve done before, I will provide regular updates on legislation, seek your input, and clearly explain my votes.”
Incumbent bows out
Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, currently represents House District 20, but announced Thursday morning that he would not seek reelection.
“It has truly been an honor to serve as your State Representative for House District 20. When I first ran, I had hoped to serve up to three terms and continue building on what I learned during my first term,” Schmid wrote in a Facebook post. “But life can change your priorities. Over the past year, my family has gone through some difficult times. My wife is dealing with serious health issues, and the death of my brother, Jim, just a few short weeks ago have made it clear to me where I need to spend my time.”
In March, Bill Winney, a perennial candidate and former nuclear submarine commander, announced he would run for House District 20.
The official candidate filing period opens May 14.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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