Wyoming Public Media Misrepresents Library Lawsuit Settlement

(Opinion - Glenn Woods).

A recent headline on the Wyoming Public Media website reads:

Campbell County librarian fired after defending LGBTQ+ books wins $700,000 settlement.

This headline is false and misleading in the way it is framed. I'm not sure if WPM is intentionally trying to mislead or if they simply don't understand how this works.

Nobody "won" and nobody "lost" anything. That is not the way these settlements work.

BACKSTORY:

Campbell County has agreed to pay $700,000 to its former library director, Terri Lesley, in the settlement agreement.

Lesley alleged in a lawsuit filed earlier this year that the county removed her for defending LGBTQ+ materials. The county denied her allegations.

Campbell County citizens were upset over books in the kids' section with what was seen as overly graphic and inappropriate material. Those books were relocated to an area accessible only to adults, where they could be checked out. The parents could then give them to their children if they wished.

During "Pride Month," Lesley posted recommended reading, which included LGBTQ books. That started a firestorm of controversy.

In 2023, Leslie was fired. She sued the government officials who removed her, as well as those who failed to stop her removal. According to Wyoming Public Media, she alleged county leaders violated her free speech rights when they acquiesced to "a small fraction of the community" who "relentlessly and maliciously mischaracterized" her.

WHAT A SETTLEMENT REALLY MEANS.

Lawsuits like this can carry on for years and can be outrageously expensive.

To save time and expenses, they are often "settled."

This is a typical case where the county offered $700,000 if their former librarian would sign an agreement to drop the case and just go away. At the same time, the country would NOT admit to any wrongdoing.

This means that their former librarian did NOT win anything, as the Wyoming Public Media headline suggests.

Several online left-wing "news" organizations call this settlement a "win."

This is not a "win," nor is it a loss to either side. It is NOTHING!

To put it another way, a settlement is neither a victory nor a loss for either side.

What happened is that both sides have agreed to end it and walk away, agreeing to disagree.

“My hope is that this will be a deterrent,” Lesley told WyoFile on Thursday, “that we can shut down all these censorship efforts in Wyoming and beyond.”

 

But the county said that nothing will change because they did nothing wrong.

“The Library isn’t admitting any wrongdoing,” Woming state Rep. Anne Lucas wrote of the settlement agreement, and “by accepting it, Ms. Lesley agrees.”

Lucas called this “an employment case, not a First Amendment case, and has nothing to do with legislative considerations.”