LANDER—Inside Fremont County’s library, patrons can peruse magazines and DVDs, work jigsaw puzzles, take children to storytime or select from a large collection of books.
Young readers can also access at least two controversial titles and log onto the unfettered world of the internet. Those realities helped touch off what has become a drawn-out controversy involving free speech, censorship, parental obligation, outsider activist groups and what materials belong in Fremont County’s three libraries in Lander, Riverton and Dubois.
The issue took on a new intensity when the county commission, which appoints library board members, threatened in an April 2 letter to interfere unless members could finalize decisions regarding the board’s materials review policy, install internet filters on its children’s section computers and cease “inappropriate behaviors.” The commission set a May 1 deadline.
“If we don’t see the issues listed above addressed by the end of the May Library Board meeting, we will be forced to remove the Chair and place Commissioner Mike Jones on the Library Board for a few months to ensure these policies and concerns are addressed,” the letter read. “Please give these issues the highest priority.”
In a special April 17 library board meeting, members made progress on meeting the commission’s requests. Some, however, bristled at the idea of interference.
“We’re not looking to pick a fight with the commissioners,” board Treasurer John Angst said. “We have to respond to their letter” in a way that meets the library board rules, he added, “but I don’t think we should kowtow to the exhortations of a rather emotional group.”
The letter came after months of friction between board members, county commissioners, constituents and patrons amid book challenges; condemnation of inappropriate text messages and inflammatory T-shirts; outbursts at meetings and even protests. There have been FOIA requests and hours of circular discussions, and the issue prompted many involved to issue screeds.
As the Fremont County Library finds itself mired in a struggle involving issues vexing libraries across the nation, many hope that cooler heads will prevail. In a letter of her own, library board member Perry Cook stressed the need to move past the turbulence and get back to the business of running a library.
“I’m saddened by the controversial state in which the Fremont County Library system has found itself,” she read at the outset of the April 17 meeting. “We have brought this on by recent unprofessional, inaccurate and rude behavior from the library board, from the county commissioners and from the public. The controversy has impaired the library board’s ability to focus on their main job of developing policies, overseeing the library budget and strategic planning.”
Texts, T-shirts, tension
The trouble started last summer, Library Director Anita Marple said, when a citizen filed a complaint about Wind River Pride reserving a Riverton Library meeting room to show two films. The films were inappropriate, the complaint asserted, and asked the library to cancel the event. It also said the library shelves need to be “cleaned up and curated to a higher standard.” The library clarified that it was not a library-sponsored event and that staff followed protocol for reserving rooms, she said. Complaints persisted.
That this happened in a politically charged moment — the number of titles targeted for censorship in the U.S. grew 65% from 2022 to 2023 according to the American Library Association, reaching the highest levels the organization has ever documented — may have set the stage for what followed.
When two spots opened on the library board, Marple sent a text to Cook asking her to run again in order to prevent an “ultra-conservative activist” getting the seat. Though Marple said it was a private text and she just wanted to avoid any agenda-driven people on the board, right or left, commissioners and others condemned her action after the text was shared in board emails and became public through a Freedom of Information Act request. Marple apologized to the board in an email.
After that, a report that a youth had witnessed an adult viewing pornography on a library computer led to discussion of internet filters.
In August, the county commission issued a letter to the library board requesting it address issues of room rental, the policies surrounding the pornography complaint and Marple’s text.
A board review of the library’s meeting room policy and public comment period ensued. The panel then drafted a policy that would implement internet filters. The 45-day comment period for that measure closed April 16.
In the meantime, an obscenity charge leveled against two young-adult-section books — “Tricks” and “Smoke” by Ellen Hopkins, which contain prostitution, drug abuse, rape and other topics — sparked intense debate over the library’s materials review policy.
A photograph of board member Kristen McClelland in Walmart wearing a shirt that said “Get your porn at the Fremont County Library” circulated on Facebook, raised tensions further.
Months of packed meetings and tense debates over what constitutes obscenity and pornography and how the library should police patron access ensued. Marple decided to keep the challenged books on the shelf, and the board voted 3-2 to support her decision, with McClelland and Marta Mossburg casting the no votes. The minority members also asked that Marple at least move “Tricks,” the more controversial of the two, to the adult section. She ultimately declined.
Poor communication of library leaders has exacerbated concerns, said Jones, who is the county commission’s library liaison.
“There were like four issues [in the original letter] and they got back to us on like one or two, but they really never formally came back to address each one in detail,” he said. It was only when commissioners sent a follow-on letter that they found out the board had addressed some of the others, he said.
“You know, if you don’t tell us then we assume you didn’t do it,” he said.
Constituents of the largely conservative county, meanwhile, have been demanding answers and lodging complaints about library materials to commissioners, Jones confirmed.
Finally, he said, the board feels the library has been dragging its feet on one issue that it considers a no-brainer: installing internet filters on computers in the children’s section. “That’s not up for debate,” he said.
Push, pull, impasse
In the multifaceted debate, the idea that appears to divide people most strongly is the balance between censorship and free speech.
Critics say outside political groups like Moms for Liberty and MassResistance are attempting to influence decisions Fremont County residents should make. Moms for Liberty is a far-right “parents’ rights” organization that has netted headlines by challenging books and curricula it sees as leftist. MassResistance, a “pro-family” activist organization that targets LGBTQ issues, was involved in a library controversy in Gillette, and Arthur Schaper, who directs the California chapter, made the public records request last summer that revealed Marple’s controversial text.
It should be up to parents to oversee what their child is reviewing, censorship critics believe, and it’s not the library’s job to remove books that could impact the entire reading public.
“I have a sixth grader and an eighth grader who have grown up in the Fremont County Library System, and it is a place where I have felt really safe with my kids,” former library staffer Ami Vincent said during a March meeting. That includes sometimes having hard conversations about the content of books.
But others worry about making highly sexualized content available to children. “Tricks” includes descriptions of prostitution, sex trafficking, graphic sex and drug abuse, among others. They also defend McClelland’s First Amendment right to wear whatever T-shirt she pleases.
Not all parents are as involved as Vincent, Janelle Hahn of Lander said, and unsupervised kids go into the library to access age-inappropriate materials that “will not pass the Miller test” — a legal test for determining whether expression constitutes obscenity.
Cody Beers, president of the Fremont County Library Foundation, said giving young people access to information, knowledge and books is crucial in equipping them to participate in debates like this — which are at the core of democracy.
On the board, too, members have struggled to find compromise on the nuances of reviewing materials and how they are labeled.
Community feedback indicates the library collection should remain intact, McClelland said in early April, but the library should still improve labeling or parental controls.
“Let’s put the power in the parent’s hands,” Mossburg said.
Finalized policies
In its latest meeting, the board hammered out several issues.
This includes a materials policy as follows: When a book is challenged, the director will review and rule on it. If that ruling is appealed, the board will vote. If the majority of the board supports the director’s ruling, it stands. If a majority desires more inquiry, board members will then review the entirety of the challenged material and schedule an appeal hearing. The person making the challenge also has to read the book.
In terms of age appropriateness, the library has some existing guardrails. When a parent or guardian obtains a library card for a minor, they can add specific guidelines that are inputted as “notes” into the system. Parents can monitor the child’s account activity online. Marple agreed to look into the feasibility of allowing parents and guardians to place specific restrictions on which books their children can or can’t check out to add an extra layer of restriction.
Marple also brought up the T-shirt, telling McClelland that it made the staff and members of the public uncomfortable. “You need to know, there was a negative impact to your action.”
McClelland hasn’t worn the shirt since, she said. “I don’t know that that was an appropriate thing to do, but I can’t change it. And I will take responsibility for that.”
Cook urged the board to embrace civility, learn from mistakes and move on.
But will it be over?
Some residents have criticized the county commissioners for “micro-managing” the library, which has also given rise to a discussion about how much autonomy the library director and board should have. The model of a library director as sole arbiter may have worked decades ago, Commissioner Jones said, but times have changed and community input should also be considered.
“And I think that’s the hill that the board is willing to die on and say ‘No, we think the community can set their own standards,’” he said.
It remains to be seen if the board’s actions satisfy the commissioners. The library board meets in Riverton and via Zoom Wednesday, the day of the commissioners’ deadline.
Zooming out, Marple said, she believes “the movement here started because of a national movement,” and it has fueled a lot of fear and anger on both sides. “This is not something that started because regular library users were concerned about material in the library that had been here a long time.”
Despite that, she hopes people have felt heard through the process, but also, “that people have listened.”
In March, board treasurer Angst stressed the need for exactly that — to see people as neighbors, not enemies. “By doing so, we can find over time the answers to what we need to be, which is not somebody else’s decision.”
It’s a tough challenge, Jones said. “I think it’s something we have to wrestle out ourselves, and it’s messy as heck and we’re taking a lot of fire from both sides here.”
MAGA is the corruption of America. Keep kowtowing to the orange menace Wyo.
It appears that the arrogant and condescending County Commission is the group having the trouble in communicating here.
Wyoming has always been a hotbed of individual rights until recently. Someone demanding that the library REMOVE any book from their shelves violates the rights of all of usto know what we want to know.
If the parents wish to restrict their children’s reading materials, I recommend they accompany them when they visit the library. The parents who are “too busy” to do that may be seen as neglectful under the eyes of the God they claim to support. This appears to be another case of the nationwide attempt to TELL us what we should believe instead of asking us what we believe. I recommend that the citizens of this county should institute a demand for the resignation of ALL the County commissioners that want to restrict the public’s right to know. That right is the foundation of a Democratic Republic. Any that believe in the rights of lords of any kind, should be invited to move to the middle east where Kings and Lords are the ones in charge.
Geez, so much ado over nothing. I read all the James Bond books, and many other “porno” books and magazines, including Fanny Hill, before I left grade school for high school. And, I was not the only one…we liked comparing notes and discussing the tales with others.
Kids know more than their parents here in Wyoming it would seem. Either that or it’s a bunch of MAGAts trying to shove their religious hokum down the throats of all… NO THANKS, and keep your ridiculous beliefs in imaginary beings to yourselves, thank you!
Anyone remember a book titled “The Happy Hooker”? Just asking for a friend. This book was prior to the “interweb”, and while my friend probably did not check it out from either the school or local library it was, according to my friend, available in rural Wyoming 50 years ago.
I believe it came out in the early 70s. By then I was learning that college was a whole ‘nother world, compared to public schools in the backward Calaveras County of those days. I do remember hearing about it and the movie(s).
Wyoming, especially its predominating attitudes, reminds me a lot of the Calaveras County I knew, sans trees. Now it’s full of yuppie scum with their overblown mansions destroying the scenery…my last trip there was in ’98, for a 30-year high school reunion. I swore I would never return (most of my buddies in my class were dead and buried by then) and have been true to that oath.
Hey Fremont County, what happened to the Cowboy Code that you so enthusiastically endorsed, “live and let live, you do you and I’ll do me”? I fully support a parent’s right to tell their children what they can and cannot read, I do not support their attempts to decide for me and mine. I have reviewed state statutes as well as county and city ordinances. I have not found a single one that requires you go to the library and look at every book there. If you don’t like what they offer, don’t go there, perhaps you can home library.
The parents that clutch their pearls about library books are the same parents who call opposing political beliefs as communists.
I’d be willing to bet that the book banning lemmings are also in the majority of those who denigrate different lifestyles, sexual orientation, and religious affiliations.
And these hateful bigoted people want to dictate what books THEY feel are appropriate for everyone else kids?
As a library supporter, I have been attending the Library Board meetings for several months. This article gives an accurate description of the many discussions that have occurred. The board has not ignored the issues brought by patrons. There have been long painful discussions as members have studied the issues raised and worked to reach solutions. There are policies and procedures in place that allow ample time for community input before action is taken, Commissioner Jones is fully aware of the process that had to be followed. He failed in his duty as a liaison in not updating the commission about the progress being made. I do not believe that he was always in regular attendance.
It is a parent’s right and responsibility to know what their child is reading in a book or on their phone, but it is not their right to tell other’s children what to read.
” Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose ” . No truer words…
… except most ultra-conservatives of the book banner persuasion will have to look it up on that infernal instrument of the Devil the Internet to translate from the original French . Even better yet, go to the Library to do it. When was the last time you perused the shelving there ?
The more things change, the more they stay the same , Back when I was in junior high and high school in Cody , sixty years ago, the book banners of that era were adamant their precious children never lay eyes on one of the great books of the 20th century, by English author and literary giant D. H. Lawrence whose works were taught by rote at most schools worth their salt and crest. I refer to Lawrence’s last and perhaps most notable novel, the infamous ” Lady Chatterley’s Lover” which came out in 1928 and was right deemed an instant classic even though it had to be published privately in Italy , at first. Such salacious stuff, a wealthy English noblewoman who dared have a torrid but wholly heterogeneous love affair with her commoner gamekeeper.
The smouldering book was still scandalous forty years after publication , in Cody Wyoming and elsewhere. Of course, every reasonably learned half-enlightened and fully curious classmate of mine absolutely had to read Chatterley , simply because it was banned. A better educational experience for a larval teenager emerging from chrysalis than whipping thru a bootlegged copy of that month’s Playboy Magazine , or for the girls – gasp! – Nova magazine ( look it up ). They can’t all be Tom Sawyer or Ladies Home Journal.
Point being, we’ve seen this all before many times, actually. I like the Cicada metaphor . We know it’s coming ; it must be endured . It will pass. But have we learned nothing ?
Oh by the way… it took 94 years, but Lady Chatterley’s Lover was finally and mostly faithfully adapted to film. The movie came out on NetFlix a couple years ago. Think of it as the Cliff’s Notes version…
Are the people trying to “protect the children” honestly naive enough to believe that kids learn about things like sexuality and drug use from a library book? Evidently they have forgotten what it was like to be in school.
With internet, cell phones, streaming services on TV’s – Library books are really the last thing conservative parents should be concerned with. And – if a parent is that concerned, then be a parent and supervise your child. For parents that “aren’t that involved” – do you really think they are supervising what their kids are doing online? However, it’s really about asserting power, wanting to control what other have access to and making political statements and not about the books at all. Also – kids/young adults at the library can easily go into the “adult” section and read those books too. All these people are doing is bringing attention to these supposed horrible books so kids go seek them out.
When I was in high school everyone was reading the Flowers in the Attics series – I’m sure these conservative parents (who probably also read this series) would freak out that we checked them out from the high school library! LOL!
Like the cicadas of the east and midwest these book banning broods seem to reappear every 15-20 years. May they remain just a lot noise that the rest of us walk through as we go about our lives in a rich and interesting democracy, enlivened by the books we read and made better by the librarians who continue their good work. Thank you for a thorough summary, Katie!
Filtering library computers, whether adult or children’s is a no brainer. To Ms McCelland: “I don’t know that that was an appropriate thing to do, but I can’t change it. And I will take responsibility for that.” If you don’t know that it was juvenile and inappropriate, certainly not professional, then I think maybe you shouldn’t be on the library board, or any board for that matter. All too often people act out in inappropriate ways, and then beg forgiveness. This wasn’t a spur of the moment emotional post on some social media. She deliberately took actions to have this T-shirt printed. Actions speak louder than words, and with all actions there are consequences. As for children accessing “inappropriate” reading material, I’m sorry, but parents you let the cows out of that gate along time ago by giving your children smart phones. Anything can be accessed on the net, so if you think that you’re protecting your child by prohibiting access to books from a library, you’re only fooling yourself. I challenge parents to do their job, which is parenting, and not abdicate that responsibility to teachers and librarians.
Remember the character, Howard Beale, from the movie ‘Network’, played by Peter Finch? His famous line, “I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore”, resonates with me still to this day . I find it ironic when Commissioner Jones talks about poor communication from Library leaders. He is the liaison and attends the majority of the library board meetings. It’s his responsibility to share what was discussed in the meetings with the other county commissioners. This should not be a new practice for Commissioner Jones because this is his second term as a Library System liaison.
I found the letter that Commissioner Jones wrote to the Fremont County Library System Board of Directors to be unnecessary and degrading. There have always been, since 1983, policies regarding collection, development and procedures dealing with challenged material request. All these documents are public records and are available for the public. The demands were unprecedented and frightfully threatening.
One last thing, when Commissioner Jones states, times have changed… well, they haven’t. There will always be the freedom to read and to protect the established principles of a public library. I say to the people that think likewise, to mind their own business.
If these “activists” put half the amount of energy into stopping sex trafficking that they are banning a 15 year old book about it, the world would be a much better place. Too bad they don’t care about *actually* helping people.
Great article Katie thank you!
Hm, I didn’t know that LGBTQ people didn’t pay taxes and deserve not to have the same rights as any other citizen. I wish these people could attempt to explain to me how gay people come about. I don’t seem to remember my gay brother ever going to read, see, or even talk about being gay growing up but the other three of us knew he was different from the other guys in that he was more at ease around girls and enjoyed more feminine pursuits. As it was when he came out of the shadows into the light we discovered a generous, easy going person with tremendous organizational skills and the ability to take a tense situation and bring defuse the anger and hostility. One of the his great skill was the wonderful ability when you would not listen to tell you to go to hell in such a way that you would look forward to the trip. He was much loved by his coworkers and his whole office turned out for his funeral after he had a heart attack and died about two years ago. Is birthday was just 5 days ago on April 24 and would have been 55 years old. We miss you, your humanity and your great sense of humor!
A clear and concise exposition of the controversy that has roiled our Lander community. Thanks, Wyofile!
Our library has always been an invaluable source of information and enrichment, free from political or partisan influence, welcoming to everyone. Books are a safe way to learn about our world, as the reader alone (guided by parents if a child) can decide what to take in, what to put down, simply by opening or closing the book.