FORT COLLINS, Colo. — FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) \u2014 A former Wyoming library director who was fired amid an uproar over books with sexual content and LGBTQ+ themes that some people complained were inappropriate for youngsters and who sought their removal from youth shelves will be paid $700,000 after settling a lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Terri Lesley was fired as the library system director in northeastern Wyoming’s Campbell County in 2023, two years into the book dispute at the library in Gillette. Lesley sued last spring over her termination and reached the settlement with county officials Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I do feel vindicated. It\u2019s been a rough road, but I will never regret standing up for the First Amendment,\u201d Lesley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A major coal-mining area on the Western high plains, Campbell County is among the most conservative areas in one of the most conservative states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Public officials there sided with the book objectors and violated Lesley’s First Amendment rights, Lesley claimed in her federal lawsuit against Campbell County, including its commission and library board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The county denied Lesley’s claims. Only Lesley’s performance \u2014 not the dispute over the books \u2014 played a role in her dismissal, the county argued in court documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A private-practice attorney hired by the county for the lawsuit, Patrick Holscher, and County Attorney Nathan Henkes didn’t immediately return phone messages Wednesday seeking comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The books objected to in Gillette included \u201cThis Book is Gay\u201d by Juno Dawson, \u201cHow Do You Make a Baby\u201d by Anna Fiske, \u201cDoing It\u201d by Hannah Witton, \u201cSex is a Funny Word\u201d by Corey Silverberg, and \u201cDating and Sex: A Guide for the 21st Century Teen Boy\u201d by Andrew P. Smiler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe hope at least that it sends a message to other library districts, other states, other counties, that the First Amendment is alive and strong and that our values against discrimination also remain alive and strong,\u201d said Lesley\u2019s attorney, Iris Halpern. \u201cThese are public entities, they\u2019re government officials, they need to keep in mind their constitutional obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halpern and her firm, Rathod Mohamedbhai in Denver, have supported fired library employees<\/a> elsewhere in recent years. Under the settlement agreement, Lesley is dropping her lawsuit, though a separate lawsuit she has filed against three individuals who contested the books will continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency tasked with enforcing discrimination laws, allowed the lawsuit against the county officials to be filed based on an earlier EEOC complaint filed by Lesley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n