A packed house at Park County School District 1’s School Board meeting sent the message: We do not want boys in girls’ bathrooms. Do your job in Cheyenne. We need our lawmakers to intervene.
But are the hands of Wyomingites tied? The lawyer for the Board allegedly told their clients that it would be better to not make a policy about who could use what bathroom at the school, according to previous reporting.
Three “trans” students recently challenged an Oklahoma law that would have allowed for a “reasonable accommodation” to anyone in this circumstance which would include access to a single-occupancy restroom.
They lost their legal challenge and are now headed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals which has precedential power over Wyoming. It is likely that Trump’s administration will clarify Title IX guidance to disallow this.
However, the “control” problem is more nuanced and gets to a fundamental issue that conservative law makers in Wyoming are attuned to.
Once a school accepts federal money, they are beholden to the rules of the federal government. Our state sovereignty and individual rights are not protected when we accept the most amount of federal education funding possible.
It is the ole carrot and stick. The federal government is expert at giving us all the incentive in the world to sign up for their control and rulemaking.
Interestingly, according to a legislative memo released by the Wyoming Department of Education prior to the November 14th Education Committee meeting this week, the new charter school opening in Cheyenne, “has declined to receive federal funds” for fiscal year 2025.
Charter schools are public schools, but they are shaking up the model of long-time, big money education establishment. For those of you who don’t always follow the education issues, you should. It is the issue that forces your tax bill to go up.
The Wyoming education establishment is a goliath of waste. They like to sue the Legislature when they don’t get as much money as they want, while we fund education at double the rate of many other states.
We dump money into a ghost funding model that is moved around and holed away in reserves while your taxes increase, in a model so complicated with categorization that very few in the Legislature actually understand what is happening.
Charter schools put a spotlight on how inefficient, and even unnecessary, much of the spending in most school districts really is. Charters can usually do the job in a nuanced way, at a lesser cost, and the parents love the freedom and difference of character the school has.
I’m sure the new charter in Cheyenne will shine, along with the ones who already do. Interestingly, the new Cheyenne charter school will be in a position to have more freedom in policy creation because they will not be beholden to the almighty federal dollar.
Wyoming needs to stand up and adopt the Oklahoma precedent and lawmaking which will be supported by Trump rulemaking regarding Title IX.
We must take a stand, not to assimilate genders which is what is sought by extremists, but instead to honor the integrity of safety and privacy in a public school setting, which kids are required to be in.
We cannot wait for Courts to tell us what rights we have. Especially when Wyoming judges have said that safety issues and common sense are “unbefitting” of their courts.
How dare we bring up size, weight, safety and perversion. How dare we bring claims through the appropriate process after being threatened, tricked, and cancelled. The time is now and we must legislate with common sense and get off the federal teat.
The UW volleyball team and the room full of parents at the Board meeting said, “no”. I stand with those whose voices have been silenced in the name of cancel culture and insanity.
Keep packing the rooms, and don’t shut up.
Cassie Craven can be reached at: ccraven.law@gmail.com
