The questions submitted at a Powell school board candidate forum this month spotlighted some parents’ concerns regarding how the school is handling hot button issues.

The selected questions were enough to fill over an hour at The Commons on Oct. 9, covering a wide variety of topics including gun free zones, private school standards versus public school standards, tax revenues, lack of board interaction with staff and if board members would increase spending on class supplies and decrease spending on nonessentials, among others.

“As a general statement we have good schools here in Powell. But I kind of feel like this has become a way to justify complacency,” said Carrie Peters, a member of the PCSD1 Parents Group that hosted the forum.

“The problems that we do have shouldn’t be ignored just because the school’s not on fire yet,” Peters said.

The informal group — made up of parents and community members — aims  to increase awareness of issues within the public schools and would like to see more transparency and proactive policies, Peters said.

Bookending the forum were two hot button topics nationwide: bathroom use by transgender students and questionable library materials in schools. 

While the anonymously submitted questions highlighted various concerns and community interests, some included inaccuracies regarding federal law or the actions of Park County School District 1.

“We’re not in favor of spreading misinformation at all, but it’s also not our duty to filter the questions, we just ask for questions to be submitted. They just randomly get picked with the time that we have, and that’s just kind of how we go with it,” Peters said.

People have have a responsibility to fact check and look at the other side, she said. 

But, issues regarding bathroom use and questionable books at Powell Middle School are issues in Powell schools right now, she said. 

Student harassment, bathroom use and federal law 

Moderator Christeena Murdock kicked off the forum with a submitted question about a 2021 executive order issued by the Biden administration. According to the question, the order stipulated that students in federally funded schools could use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. The order was vacated by a federal judge in Texas this summer, but the question claimed PCSD1 still allows use based on gender identity.

It also asserted that the girls of Powell High School are forced to deal with male
students in their space and some are avoiding certain bathrooms, not using the bathroom at all or moving to an alternative school.

“If elected, would you push for a creation of policy at PCSD1 for bathroom use to be based on biological sex and not gender identity?” the question asked.

Three of the five school board candidates on the ballot, Ben Borcher, Kim Dillivan and Zac Opps, were present as well as write-in candidate Jeanie Fortenberry. All four candidates agreed trustees should look out for the needs of every student. Fortenberry and Opps both said accommodations could be made for transgender students, including providing private bathrooms.

Dillivan, an incumbent and the board’s chair, said the issue is under federal law and unsettled. The advice of the school district’s attorney, he said, is to not create a policy at this time.

As for mixed biological genders in restrooms, the district does not have evidence suggesting that transgender students are using bathrooms aligning with their gender identity, Superintendent Jay Curtis told the Tribune.

“We know that there is at least one parent that has claimed it is,” Curtis said, “but we have not had a single student come forward to the administration to say they are uncomfortable in the bathroom and that transgender students or biological males are entering the female bathrooms. 

“We have not had that, not once,” he said.

Students leave for alternative schooling every year, Curtis added, but he is not aware of any transfer resulting from Title IX and restroom use.

The standard protocol in Powell and Wyoming is to meet with trangender students and make an individual plan, Curtis added. He said none of the plans in practice include restroom use outside of a student’s gender at birth or a private restroom. 

The district offered to meet with the concerned parent about the policy, but “they chose to keep it via email, and the engagement has been that they are demanding that we pass a policy,” Curtis said. “It’s been communicated to them that that would be against the advice of our attorney, based on court precedent and the legal landscape around this issue.”

It is correct that the Biden administration issued an executive order regarding restrooms of choice, Curtis said, and Texas did sue and win against the Department of Education. But, the ruling in Texas does not affect schools nationwide, he said, as the court decision specifies that the ruling only applies to Texas. It’s confusing, he added, because at one point the ruling says the scope is universal. And, even if the ruling was said to apply nationwide it does not erase precedent.

“What I can tell you is that if we were to pass a policy as a district, we would be inviting a lawsuit that we have a high probability of losing,” Curtis said. “And anytime you engage in a lawsuit with regards to civil rights, you are essentially paying your attorney’s fees, and you pay their attorney’s fees.” However, this doesn’t mean the district does not want to address the situation. 

Curtis has advocated for the state Legislature to adopt a law similar to Oklahoma’s that stipulates students must use the restroom of their gender at birth or a private restroom. He has also reached out to the Wyoming Department of Education to “engage the attorney general in our state.”

Sexually graphic books in the middle school?

The final question of the forum was saved until the end, Murdock said, because she wanted to give audience members the opportunity to leave if they chose

“As an adult it is going to be difficult for me to read, it’s going to be difficult to hear,” she said.

Murdock then read a book excerpt that details a sexual assault and asked the candidates if classroom libraries should be subject to the same review as library books and if this should be under district policy.

Though the excerpt wasn’t identified with the question, it came from “I Have The Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, And Hope,” in which author Chessy Prout shares her account of being sexually assaulted in high school.

During the forum, all four candidates indicated the text was disturbing, referenced provisions in the school policy including restriction or review and mentioned the First Amendment and parents rights to choose for their kids. Fortenberry called the excerpt porn for children that age (seventh graders).

“I Have The Right To” and two other books had excerpts and context printed out for the audience to view: “Shout” by Laurie Halse Anderson, a free verse poetry book about surviving sexual assault, and “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” by Rebecca Skloot, a biography about the woman whose cells are still used in medical research (the book briefly covers Lacks’ sexual assault at the age of 13).

All three books had been a part of a seventh grade classroom library at Powell Middle School, but were removed voluntarily, Curtis said. It was the first time concerns had been raised about a book since the district adopted its book policy, he added. The policy was adopted on May 9, 2023. 

After the removal of the books which occurred immediately Powell Middle School began  working on a protocol related to classroom libraries and is near the end of the process., Principal Kyle Rohrer said.

Teachers can choose to have classroom libraries if they want, Curtis explained, and the selections are available for parents to view.

“We did that because we believe that this is an area where parents should have the right to monitor and make decisions for their own child,” Curtis said. “We believe in parent responsibility with regards to this — we believe in transparency.”

Powell schools are at the forefront when it comes to sharing classroom libraries with parents, Rohrer said.

“When we got into this and realized the [three] books that were there, they were immediately removed,” Rohrer said, “but it called for a lot more work to make sure we know exactly what’s on our shelves, because a lot of these books were left over.” Rohrer said the school needs “to purge and filter.”

Beyond the three titles spotlighted at the forum, several others were pulled, Rohrer said. Powell Middle has been working on communicating with parents and separating books in classroom libraries into passive and active agreements. Passive books are grade level appropriate and active agreement books require the active consent of the parents. A short synopsis will also be included, Rohrer said.

“We want to try to get that out to parents sooner than later — that active and passive consent … I just always appreciate their support and their willingness to kind of listen and help guide us,” Rohrer said.

The school’s policies can be viewed by going to pcsd1.org and going to District Policies.

More about the PCSD1 Parents Group can be found on their Facebook page.