Council voices support for school board, police department
Hosting a special meeting to pass the statement, the Laramie City Council decried the “insults, vitriol, threats and personal attacks” aimed at ASCD for its mask policy, and LPD for a Thursday arrest.
The Laramie City Council called a special meeting Tuesday for the sole purpose of backing up the Albany County School Board and the Laramie Police Department.
Resolution 2021-65 passed on an 8-1 vote, with only Councilor Bryan Shuster voting against.
“The City Council supports the public health efforts of local government authorities at all levels, and the public employees who do so much for our communities in their efforts to keep children and all other community members safe,” the resolution states, also voicing support for: “the Laramie Police Department, and all other enforcement agencies as they work with local government authorities to enforce the laws and maintain good order in our community.”
Both the school board and LPD came under fire last week and through the weekend for enforcing — respectively — a mask mandate and trespassing laws.
A Laramie High School student was suspended Thursday for refusing to follow the district’s mask requirement, and eventually was arrested when she refused to leave the campus. The incident caused a lockdown at the high school, gained national attention, and brought in more than $77,000 through a crowdfunding campaign for the students’ legal fees and her family’s planned lawsuit.
It’s also fostered an atmosphere of tension and uncertainty ahead of the school board’s meeting today — during which the board will decide to extend the mandate or let it expire.
According to councilors and the council’s resolution, the incident has also inspired a fair number of heated accusations directed at various government entities.
“Over the course of less than a week, there’s been a great deal of public conversation — which is a generous term to apply to some of the dialogue and communication that’s taken place over the Albany County School District’s policy surrounding face coverings,” Mayor Paul Weaver said. “Disagreement is normal and acceptable, but all too often recently, we see something that’s far beyond disagreement and becomes something that isn’t civic engagement.”
Weaver called for civility, adding that the council and other local elected officials were exhausted by accusations of fascism.
“We’ve heard it all,” the mayor said. “We’ve heard it all before in this community, a year ago and over the course of the last year, in different contexts, from different groups with different philosophical points of view and different ideologies — all too willing to label elected officials at the local level Nazis, fascists, communists, totalitarians. It’s not what we need in public life today.”
The resolution recognizes that COVID-19 is an “ongoing and a serious threat to the health, safety, and well-being of the City of Laramie and its residents,” while citing the significant number of daily cases in Albany County.
“We support and respect our local school board in its difficult decisions, including mask mandates, as it balances the needs of its students for in-person learning with the safety of all students, teachers and staff in public schools, and … we support the Laramie Police Department as it fulfills its duty to enforce the laws of Wyoming, and as it coordinates with governmental agencies to keep good order,” the resolution states. “We deplore and condemn the insults, vitriol, threats, and personal attacks directed at local elected officials, public employees, and the Laramie Police Department.”
Councilor Bryan Shuster was the only member of the council to vote against the resolution, saying he did not support “all of this measure.”
“I feel bad for the police department — they had to be involved in this, there was no choice,” Shuster said. “I support the police department, but some of the other decisions that were made I do not support.”
A few public commenters also spoke up. While all were opposed to the school district’s mask policy, they focused on issues other than the council’s resolution. For example, one simply voiced support for the arrested student, while another demanded to know “what science” the councilors were following.
The special meeting was followed by a work session, during which the council heard from University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel and UW student leadership. ASUW President Hunter Swilling and Executive Allison Brown spoke about a wide range of topics, from the food security and mental health issues facing students to COVID-19 vaccination rates to problems with landlords.