CASPER — Concerns about a cross-dressing custodian at Crest Hill Elementary School in Casper came to a head Monday during a meeting of the Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees.
Two local residents called for the resignation of the board’s vice chair for a social media post about a parent, another warned the district about allowing indoctrination of young minds, and a state legislator was escorted from the public comment microphone by law enforcement.
Even after Vice Chair Dana Howie apologized and explained her social media post related to an elementary school parent’s concerns about the custodian, Board Chair Kevin Christopherson complained about internet and media misinformation and urged people to avoid them and get “recentered.”
He also said that a Casper state representative who appeared before the board Sept. 8 admitted she did not know what she was talking about regarding the janitor.
That elicited state House District 38 Rep. Jayme Lien, R-Casper, to try and respond: “I will not be called a liar.”
Casper Police Department officers stood beside Lien to shut off her microphone and escort her away from a public comment chair and microphone she walked up to and sat in because it was the board comment period.
Lien told Cowboy State Daily after the meeting that she was at the Sept. 8 board meeting because she had “multiple parents reach out to me about a situation going on in an elementary school and ask for help.”
It was not because of an internet or social media post.
“I asked if this board was willingly neglecting state law in talking about compelled speech and private spaces,” she said. “Those are two laws that went into effect on July 1 of this year.
"So, for trustee Christopherson to say that I am up here ill-informed and lying is a lie. Because compelled speech did go into effect this year.”
Calls For Resignation
Meanwhile, former state representative and Casper resident Jeanette Ward addressed the board about Howie’s post.
The board vice chair had responded to a supporter of the Crest Hill custodian in a thread and commented about the concerned parent’s social media post.
The Crest Hill parent had written about her elementary son’s concerns about the janitor, who he knew as a man in prior years and is now dressing as a female since the school began, talking in a higher-pitched voice, and allegedly asking to be called by female pronouns.
Howie in her post stated that the school district superintendent and the district “did step in to make a plan to help protect this custodian.”
Howie in the post added: “God help (the concerned parent) (or me) the next time I see her.”
“Perhaps Trustee Howie would like to elaborate on what kind of help God will need to provide to this concerned mom when Trustee Howie runs into her,” Ward said. “This kind of disdain for the citizens of this district who elected her is unacceptable and Trustee Howie should resign.”
A man who identified himself as Dustin and a father of a student in the district declined to give his last name when addressing the board. He also called for Howie to “resign tonight” for threatening the parent.
State House District 35 Rep. Tony Locke, R-Casper, told the board that the schools in the district are for the children, not the staff, teachers, administrators or “anyone else.”
“If there is any indoctrination being allowed to happen in our schools it is unacceptable, if you think about that just for a moment,” he said. “If one individual is saying that we need to call this biological male a female, we are teaching our children to lie.
"And that should be a despicable thought to everybody on this board in front of me and everybody in this room.”
Locke said any efforts to try and “indoctrinate” elementary children by having them call a male by female pronouns introduces confusion for the young students.
“It is ridiculous for us to be allowing that to happen,” he said.
Apology
During board comments, Howie said that her social media post regarding a “transitioning custodian at one of our elementary schools” was responding to a parent who supported the janitor and once had a student at the school.
That parent was upset about the other parent’s post.
Howie said Wyoming seems a different place and less tolerant than the place in which she grew up.
“I was very upset to see how this mom was going after the custodian; as if their very being was not allowed around her child,” she said.
Howie said she did not intend her “God help her or me” phrase to be a threat. She described herself as someone who does not even like putting out mousetraps or killing bugs.
“I move bugs outside rather than kill them and I would certainly never hurt another human being,” she said.
Howie said “God did help” her to see the parent is “fearful for her child” due to exposure to something “out of the realm of their religion maybe” or afraid of some type of “undue influence.”
She then offered an apology.
“Her fear came out in anger and mine did, too,” Howie said. “And for that I deeply apologize.”
During her comment time, Trustee Alex Petrino said sometimes it is hard to be “measured” when responding to circumstances that confront the board.
“Especially when we see potential discrimination happening,” she said. “Our district is welcoming to all students, faculty, and staff. We don’t cherry pick who is here and we abide by a nondiscrimination policy.”
She said the city of Casper also has a nondiscrimination ordinance in place.
‘A Post Off The Internet’
Christopherson defended Howie and seemed to characterize Lien’s concerns at the Sept. 8 meeting as something she got online.
“We had a state representative get up in front of us last week (Sept. 8) and admit that she did not know what she was talking about and make accusations that weren’t true, and she got it off of a post off the internet,” Christopherson said. “We all know the internet is right. We always know reporters are always right.
"I have been reported on maybe 50 times in my life even for really good things that I’ve done, and I’ve never had a reporter get it 100% right.”
He said Howie is a woman of integrity and not a threat to anyone. If people are looking for a threat, they will see it, Christopherson said.
Christopherson said he just came from spending a few days with relatives hunting elk.
“I ask you in the audience, anyone who can to spend some time away from the phone, away from the articles, away from all that BS, (to) get recentered in your life, figure out what is important,” he said. “We are all here because we know the children are our next generation.
"This is a great district, and we have great employees and there is always a problem. And if you want to see that problem, and if you want to concentrate on that problem, that’s all you are going to see.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
