CASPER — Sometimes accidentally flipping a “J” to look like an “L” can stir up a whole heap of concern.
That was the school lesson in Casper during annual “Banned Books” week as the Kelly Walsh High School library taped a message in blood-red dripping letters on its window that read: “Banned Books Lust Won’t Stay Buried."
Natrona County District spokeswoman Tanya Southerland said the message was not the one the library intended because someone mistakenly flipped the “J” to look like an “L.”
“The letter ‘J’ was inadvertently and accidentally flipped,” she said. “If you look closely at the photo, you can see it was backwards ‘J.’”
The intended and corrected message is “Banned Books Just Won’t Stay Buried,” Southerland said.
Southerland said the school library was taking part in the annual banned books week that goes from Oct. 5 -11 and is “recognized across libraries nationally.
But before the errant message was corrected, a photo of the “Lust Won’t Stay Buried” message found its way to school board Trustee Jenifer Hopkins who posted it on her political Facebook page, along with criticism.
Hopkins initially challenged the message in a post asking if the “subject of lust” was appropriate for a conversational material for adult staff to discuss with students.
“The context is that sexually explicit materials belong in libraries,” she wrote. “I am confident our librarians can do better.”
She had a lot of agreement.
“This is completely inappropriate to be on a high school library,” on responder wrote. “This is just weird.”
Another responder wrote: “They can’t leave it outside the school doors; they’ve got to shove it down everybody’s throats.”
That errant message generated fire on social media. Hopkins’ post drew more than 30 comments.
Concerns Remain
When she learned of the “inadvertent” flip of the “J”, Hopkins told Cowboy State Daily that she appreciated the clarification and how the unintentional message resulted. She said she was initially contacted by a constituent about the sign.
But the error reawakened a yearslong dispute that has affected Natrona County and other Wyoming communities.
Hopkins said even with the correct message that banned books “just won’t stay buried,” she had concerns.
“Why would a school library choose to participate in banned books month?” she said. “Additionally, does the phrase ‘just won’t stay buried’ imply that explicit materials should have a place in our public schools.”
Hopkins said she wanted to emphasize that “books are not actually banned in America.” She said while some titles may be removed from school library collections, whether due to appropriateness considerations, lack of circulation, or other factors, it does not “constitute a ban.”
The definition of a ban would mean the book is prohibited entirely, which is not the case when schools make curated collection decisions for their specific communities,” she said.
Hopkins said she was only speaking as community member, and not for the school board.
Former Casper-based state representative Jeanette Ward said even with the corrected message, the whole issue of questioning sexually explicit material in a public-school setting does not equal “book banning” and is a distortion of reality.
“In the 2023 Wyoming General Session, I introduced House Bill 87 to remove the exemption public school officials currently have to show inappropriate material to minors,” she said. “This would have prohibited public tax dollars from subsidizing books that many would deem obscene.”
That bill died in a legislative committee.
Ward said taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize content that violates their moral standards.
“Refusing to subsidize something with one’s own money is not the same as ‘book banning,’” she said. “I reject the idea that ‘anything goes’ simply because it’s in a library. Standards matter. Context matters. Children are not components ideological experiments.”
During the most recent school board meeting on Sept. 22, Hopkins’ fellow Trustee Michael Stedillie took a different view and encouraged people to find a list of banned books.
“Look it up and find a list of the top 10 to top 100 banned and challenged books over the last few years,” he said. “The theme of this year’s banned and challenged books is 'Censorship is so 1984. Read for Your Rights.'"
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
