Library board showed cowardice in firing Gillette director

If there’s an award for the most clueless, classless and cowardly public officials in Wyoming, I nominate the Campbell County Board of Commissioners and the people it appointed who fired a popular county librarian who refused to violate the First Amendment.

The library board wouldn’t even come clean and tell the public why it fired Terri Lesley, who until last month was Campbell County Public Library’s director for 11 years, and an employee for more than a quarter-century. She’s a casualty of the far-right’s outrageous national movement to ban sex education and LGBTQ-themed books that has spread to many Wyoming communities.

The library voted 4-1 on July 28 to terminate Lesley’s employment. All one has to do is look at what’s happened the past two years to see how the ugly process of removing Lesley was orchestrated by county officials. 

Her firing was all a smokescreen to keep the library board from having to take responsibility for the action county leaders demanded but didn’t have the guts to own. They tried to make Lesley the scapegoat, but she refused and called them out as the self-righteous bullies they are.

An overflow crowd of about 250 people attended the hearing where she was fired, with the vote occurring after the board met in closed session. Observers I talked to estimate about 90% were there to back Lesley.

For a while, the director had dodged bullets aimed at her since 2021, when the then-existing library board backed her and refused to remove any challenged books from the shelves.

But last year the county commission appointed three new members to oversee the library, a majority, all intent on pushing Lesley out of her job and purging books that supposedly “sexualize” children. In reality, they do no such thing. For as much bluster as we’ve witnessed, critics of these books cannot point to a single real-world example where they’ve caused harm.

How did we get to this shameful moment? Two years ago, Gillette became the state’s epicenter of the controversy when a couple asked a prosecutor to charge the library’s staff with making obscene material available to children. An attorney who reviewed the matter said there was no case because the challenged books were not obscene.

A “Pride” display of LGBTQ-related books available at the library caused another uproar. So did a Friends of the Library display of books that residents had challenged.

One was a picture book, “Mary Wears What She Wants,” based on the true story of Mary Edwards Walker, a trailblazing doctor who was arrested in 1870 for wearing pants. This illustrated history book supposedly represents LGBTQ “values,” and is too dangerous for kids to read!

Bailey Gregorich, a Gillette mother of three who has enjoyed going to the library since she was a child, said the incident shows “how completely, utterly ridiculous this is.” She said there were many examples of homophobia because some books featured gay characters and others were educational about relationships in general but included gay couples.

In June, the library board approved a “Policy for Protecting Children From Harmful, Sexually Explicit Material.” It did so with the guidance of MassResistance, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a far-right, anti-LGBTQ hate group.

At a meeting four days before the firing, Sage Bear, who was re-appointed to the board after serving a stint as chairman, asked Lesley when she was going to “weed out” books that violated the policy.

Lesley suggested anyone challenging a book should follow an established process, which puts the burden on the board to name the books it decides to “weed,” instead of making the staff do it arbitrarily.

“It’s too subjective, and we wouldn’t know which of the board’s definitions would apply and which would not,” Lesley told me in an interview. “It was just fraught with uncertainty, and an impossible task all the way around. There are no books to my knowledge in our collection that are obscene. What are they talking about?”

Lesley told the board that by asking staff to violate the First Amendment, it put them at risk of being sued — rather than the board that created the policy. Bear told Lesley at the public meeting that if that’s how she feels, she should find another job.

Lesley told me that later, in a private meeting, Bear and new Board Chairman Charles Butler asked her to resign. She refused and invoked her right to a public hearing under Wyoming law. After the session, the board announced her firing.

Lesley told the board working at the library “was my dream job,” but the last two years have been “pure hell.”

“The easiest thing in the world would’ve been for me to resign at any time during the last two years,” she added. “But these years have been hard on my staff as well, and they deserve my support, and for me not to take the easy way out.”

Lesley’s tenacity has been recognized by many Gillette residents.

“The board has done a lot of barking, but they’ve not moved a book. This is really dangerous stuff, and it’s across the nation,” Vicki Swenson said. “I think Terri Lesley’s firing has made people engaged, and they’ve rallied around the library because of what (the board) did to her.”

“When you start outlawing books because of your personal, religious and moral beliefs in this country, you’re going against the Constitution, you’re going against what we were founded for,” Nick Jessen told the board. “You’re personally an affront to myself and most of the people I know. This is a shit show, and I’m embarrassed for this board.”

Butler was so offended by such profanity, he immediately shut down public comment. After the meeting, when Butler was asked to comment, he allegedly slammed his truck door on a reporter, according to the Gillette News Record.

The newspaper also said county commissioners were criticized at a meeting after Lesley was fired. Sherri England accused them of “handpick[(ing]) the library board members to follow your agenda.”

“Freedom is about choices, and you and the library [(board]) are taking away my choice,” England charged. “You’re crossing the line from elected leadership to dictatorship.”

At great personal cost, Lesley stood her ground and wouldn’t be bullied into doing something she knows is wrong. She is a profile in courage that Wyoming should celebrate.