Wyoming House Ruled by Sommers’ Iron Fist
Wyoming House Ruled by Sommers’ Iron Fist
Most Republican state in the nation continues to disappoint conservatives
Last week, an effort in Wyoming to bring Senate File 117, which is titled “Parental rights in education,” out of Speaker of the House Albert Sommers’ (R-WY20) desk so the Wyoming House of Representatives can consider the bill failed.
In short, the stated purpose of SF117 is to prohibit the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation in K-3 classrooms. But more on the bill in a bit.
The failure of a motion to suspend Wyoming House rules, made by Rep. Jeanette Ward (R-WY57), last Tuesday, Feb. 21 was another in a long line defeats for the Wyoming Freedom Caucus as the state’s Republican Party continues to show itself to be controlled by special interest groups and self-preservation.
SF117 was approved by the Wyoming Senate by an 18-12 vote on Jan. 27, but it has been sitting in Sommers’ desk since then. If Sommers continues to refuse to assign a committee for the bill, the only option was to suspend the rules to attempt to get it out of his desk. The Feb. 21 motion was defeated with 34 nays, 27 ayes.
Below is a video of the Feb. 21 session when the motion was made. The motion by Ward is made around the 1:09:30 mark in the video, the results of the vote announced around the 1:20:16 mark.
Ward said:
“This bill has been in the Speaker’s desk for 24 days, and our constituents have been asking us what the status is…”
Sommers then interrupts saying he needed consultation on what could be debated. After several minutes of consultation, he said: “You have the right to explain why you want to suspend the rule” but not the merits of the bill.
Ward then said:
“This bill, Senate File 117 also called Parental Rights in Education, has been in the Speaker’s desk for 24 days. Our constituents have been asking us what the status of the bill is. The issue of parental rights in education is clearly prominent in our time…”
Sommers again interrupts:
“No, we’re not going to debate that. We’re just going to talk about why you believe it should be pulled out of the drawer. And you believe it should be pulled out because it’s been in my desk for so many days. We’re not going to debate the merits of the bill.”
As you can see, Sommers has a quick hook in cutting people off. He even attempts to speak for Ward saying the only reason she wants the bill out of his desk is because it’s been there for “many days.” Isn’t stating “parental rights in education is clearly prominent in our time” legitimately a reason why the bill should be assigned a committee, not a statement of the merits of the bill?
Sommers told Cowboy State Daily:
“Fundamentally, I believe in local control. I’ve always fought – regardless of what really the issue is – against taking authority away from local school boards, town councils, county commissions. And in my view, that’s what this bill does.”
LOL…. Excuse me as I laugh a bit. But I’ll get to that shortly.
According to the Washington Examiner, Ward said:
“They value procedure in the House over the will of the people. I am fighting with everything I know how to use for what [my constituents] told me was important to them when I ran. I am contending for the people who elected me, and I intend to continue to do that until the end of the 67th Legislature.”
Rep. John Bear (R-WY31), who supported Ward’s motion, said:
“I believe the biggest pressure [against the bill] is coming from the teachers union, of which (Sommers’) very supportive of.”
“The speaker claimed that this particular bill, stifled local control, but this bill actually gave control to the most local of all, the parents, in regards to the education of [kindergarten] through third graders.”
To state that Sommers had a quick hook is a little too friendly. Instead, he rules with an iron fist.
The Cowboy State Daily piece described the factors Sommers considers when choosing to keep a bill in his desk, which include: “If the bill does something he fundamentally disagrees with, or is unconstitutional, or matches another bill that has either been defeated or is continuing through the Legislature.”
Another Cowboys State Daily piece from earlier in February stated: “House Speaker Rep. Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, a more moderate Republican, said he has kept a number of bills in his drawer this year because he thought they were bad policy or poorly timed.”
Ok, so those aren’t direct quotes from Sommers. Maybe he’s misrepresented?
Nope, he stated that emphatically in an op-ed penned for the Cowboy State Daily where again he claims the mantle of “local control.” The political creature Sommers is an absurd liar who rules as a dictator.
Think about it, if Sommers “fundamentally disagrees” with a bill, he believes he does not need to allow it to come to the House floor. That’s a dictator, not a Speaker. It shouldn’t matter whether he agrees with a bill or not. By the way, and I realize most reading this support SF117, I wouldn’t support it but certainly not for the reasons Sommers posits. I’ll explain that later.
Let’s address the lies of Sommers that he somehow supports “local control.”
A bill sponsored by Ward, House Bill 143, was rejected on Feb. 8 with 32 nays, 29 ayes. That bill prohibited mandates from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Sommers was among the no votes. So, Sommers doesn’t believe in local control. He believe in globalist control.
Then there was HB66, another bill sponsored by Ward. It failed with 32 nays, 29 ayes on Jan. 30. That bill would have banned mask mandates and experimental covid gene therapy shot mandates. I wrote about that bill at the time:
Sommers voted against it. A few of his lackeys, Rep. Barry Crago (R-WY40) and Dan Zwonitzer (WY43), spoke about why they opposed it. As you will see, they don’t believe in local control either. They believe in money. And that’s all that matters to the political creatures.
Crago said:
“If this bill passes and we end up on the wrong side of an argument with the federal agency that provides this funding back to the state, that money will disappear. And the hospitals back home will be, struggling isn’t the right word, dying is the word I would have to use to describe the hospitals back home.”
Zwonitzer said:
“You’re talking about your hospitals and your nursing homes if you want to play this game of chicken. And I will submit to you, you can’t afford to do this because they can’t afford to operate in 80 percent of hospitals in this state.”
Local decision making for these creatures, no, no, no. We can’t have that. We’re dependent on the federal mafia stealing from all Americans to support what is supposed to be the responsibility of individuals.
Sommers is solely concerned about his own interests, his own preservation. Whether it be holding bills in his desk or voting against medical liberty, he has a whole bag of tricks for political chicanery. Take his action with SF144, a bill that would have banned gender reassignment surgery for minors.
David Horowitz described in for The Blaze:
“Well, what’s worse than teaching kids about castration? Actually performing it on them. Fast-forward to Senate File 144, which would ban castration of minors. It sailed through the Senate Labor, Health, and Social Services Committee unanimously and passed the Senate 26-5. Indeed, similar bills have sailed through legislative bodies in Tennessee, Utah, Mississippi, and South Dakota, and many more are expected to pass it before the end of the session.”
“But once again, ‘San Fran’ Sommers was holding it in the House. He finally agreed to assign it to a committee, but bizarrely chose the Appropriations Committee rather than Labor, Health, and Social Services. Well, we know why. Appropriations is chaired by liberal Rep. Bob Nicholas (R-Cheyenne), who helped defeat it 5-2 with a ‘do not pass’ recommendation.”
As you can see, social conservatism does not win in America’s most Republican state. Neither does fiscal conservatism. Wyoming spends the ninth most taxpayer dollars per pupil in the nation. Meanwhile, only 53% of Wyoming students are proficient in English, 48% in math, according to the Wyoming State Report Card. I’d call that a failure. And yet, the money won’t stop flowing. The government will keep stealing from you to fund failure, and they’ll always make excuses that they haven’t stolen enough from you and that’s why they’re failing.
SF117
So, what exactly is in SF117? I’ll comment a bit here, but I’ll explain further why this bill effectively would do nothing if it had been passed.
“AN ACT relating to education; specifying procedures and requirements for school districts to provide parents notice of information regarding students and the rights of parents to make decisions regarding their children; specifying that school districts cannot prohibit parental notification and involvement in critical decisions involving students; prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity as specified; specifying training requirements for school districts; specifying procedures for resolving parent concerns and complaints; specifying duties for school district boards of trustees and the state board of education; providing for a cause of action; requiring rulemaking; and providing for effective dates.”
The bill adds:
“No school district shall permit classroom instruction by teachers or any other person on sexual orientation and gender identity: For students in grades kindergarten through three (3); or In a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with standards established by the state board of education.”
So, it’s ok for such discussions in fourth grade? There is a place for deviant sexual lessons, so long as it isn’t done prior to fourth grade? And the generic “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate” language. You think this will stop anybody? You don’t think they’ll trot out “experts” to explain why every deviant lesson is appropriate for students of all ages?
The bill goes on to direct local school boards to provide notification to parents/guardians “immediately if there is a change in the student’s services or monitoring related to the student's mental, emotional or physical health or well‑being and the school’s ability to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for the student.” It also prohibits denial of access of their child’s “education and health records created, maintained or used by the school district” from parents.
Explain to me why schools have “health records” for students? Why would a school monitor “mental, emotional or physical health or well-being” of students? That’s way beyond the realm of schools. But this bill codifies that as a function of schools just as long as the parents know.
The bill also prohibits districts from developing policies or procedures that encourage students to withhold “information about the student’s mental, emotional or physical health or well‑being” from parents/guardians. It also has language regarding questionnaires and procedures for parents to file complaints.
Principles Desperately Needed
“When I first heard about Florida’s Parental Rights bill, I was shocked it only protects children K-3. Third grade? How about 12th grade—or not at all. Meanwhile, schools are failing: 1 in 4 graduates are functionally illiterate. Parents should raise their kids, not the government.”—Tulsi Gabbard
In a video included in the above Tweet, Gabbard said:
“Government has no place in our personal lives, government has no place in our bedrooms. Parents are the ones responsible for raising their kids and instilling in them a moral foundation, not the government. Now the reality that we’re facing in this country is that our schools are failing. Nationally, 34% of students are below basic reading level in the fourth grade, 25% of high school graduates are functionally illiterate.”
Gabbard made those comments last year when the Florida bill, described as the “don’t say gay” bill by the lying media, was approved. Wyoming SF117 mirrored that bill.
And quite frankly, it lacks principles and it lacks teeth.
There’s this constant cry for “parental rights” from conservatives. It’s not about parental rights. It’s about parental responsibility. That’s the principle that should be the guide. Instead, conservatives want politicians to write new laws that amount to virtue signaling to them. I’m going to note that I don’t like writing that because I know many of the conservatives do have the right intentions. But they’ve been trained by Conservative, Inc. media and think tanks that are also trying to protect our fascist and socialist systems just like the political creatures of the world who laughably lie about supporting local control while voting to allow globalist rule.
I wrote about the Florida bill last year for The Liberty Loft. What I wrote applies to SF117.
Included in that piece were videos from Burlington, Vermont where fifth graders are openly being groomed for the LGBTQ mob. Watch these videos, and remember that all of this would be perfectly fine in Wyoming under SF117 because these are fifth graders.
Here’s some of what I wrote last year:
Yet, the Florida bill is what we’re told to cheer on as some “protection” of kids. But let’s take a deeper look at that bill beyond just the grade in which child grooming is allowed to begin.
The supposed “don’t say gay” aspect of Florida’s HB1557 is this: “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Do you not think that the “teachers” and “administrators” can find a work around from this? Even though they’re teaching 9-year-olds to watch pornography in New Jersey, they’ve got a nice little cartoon to teach it. Aren’t cartoons, like Blues Clues’ Pride parade, age appropriate?
And what can the State of Florida actually do? All it can do is remove funding. Of course, the feds could jump in and restore that funding, and they’ve got deeper pockets since they’ve got a printing machine to churn out dollars. And, when the largest school districts in Florida start cutting programs, purposely, under the general guise of their funding was cut, how long do you think it will take the Florida politicians to step in and increase funding to those schools during election season.
A principled approach is needed now more than ever, one in which parents actually start taking responsibility again for the education and protection of their children and not leave them in the hands of the state.
In the 2011 documentary IndoctriNation, Dr. Roger Schultz, a dean at Liberty University, discussed how the pilgrims came to America in part to provide a stronger education for their kids with the primary textbook being the Bible. Herb Titus, who was a founding dean of the law school at Regent University, said: “It’s quite remarkable that we have allowed this particular educational philosophy to dominate America for so long when the early history of the country indicated that it was a family responsibility, a church responsibility, not the responsibility of the civil government to educate the nation’s children.”
We’re talking today about how to “protect” kids from sexual groomers in the government schools, and there is absolutely no calls to make the Bible the primary textbook. I don’t think there’s a single Republican who would actually say these “teachers” and “administrators” who are openly grooming kids should be fired and arrested. The furthest they’ll go is to write a few lines of text on a piece of paper that says they’re not allowed to groom kids before 4th grade.
Parents must take back the responsibility they handed over to the government decades ago.
I’ve written several times on the book battles in Natrona County School District in Casper, Wyoming:
I’ll reiterate some of the things I’ve already written. These topics, such as sexual orientation and gender identity to books promoting sodomy and other deviant lifestyle choices, are just symptoms.
The disease is the government school system. It’s a system that teaches children they are decedents of apes or some other lower life forms. We, as humans, are meaningless in their worldview. We’re accidents in an unguided universe, their worldview states. No wonder immorality is promoted and the one true God and His standard of righteousness is hated. This system produces fools, but they arrogantly call themselves “educated.”
And nobody wants to cure the disease because the solution requires parental responsibility. And nobody, “left” or “right,” actually wants to take responsibility. Parents already have rights. They can take their kids out of the godless school system and teach them at home or find a private school. But that requires them to be responsible.
As long as this system persists, we are left with faux “liberty” arguments, which I will add comes from both sides. In the end, nobody has liberty so long as this system persists.
There’s no place for sex education of any kind, whether it be so-called “comprehensive” or “abstinence only.” There’s no place for discussions on sexuality or gender identity. It isn’t simply about the immoral nature of these topics, it’s because these topics have nothing to do with education. And as you can see by the academic results, they’re pitiful in the subjects that actually matter.