House report: Legislature discusses corporal punishment, school choice

CHEYENNE — State Rep. Martha Lawley (R-Worland) reported yet another busy week in Cheyenne, with the passing of the supplemental budget and several controversial bills.

Lawley said that the supplemental budget was a demonstration of fiscal discipline in her mind, with almost $1.4 billion allocated to savings. “We also fully funded Wyoming’s K-12 education system, which is something that hasn’t been fully funded in the past,” she added.

Senate File 47, which would repeal immunity for corporal discipline in K-12 schools, passed out of House Education Committee, which Lawley is a member, but did not make it through Committee of the Whole. Lawley said that the main reason for the legislation’s failure was protections the current statutory provision could provide for educators breaking up fights between students by physically restraining them. The committee heard testimony that corporal discipline is not common policy in Wyoming schools, and districts where it is permitted are working to change the rules. Lawley predicted that the issue would be brought back up with more specificities for teacher protections in other physical forms of discipline.

Also in the House Education Committee, Senate File 98 was placed on General File on Thursday.

The legislation would standardize a certificate of completion for students with disabilities to be awarded at high school graduation. Lawley was happy to see it pass out of committee. “That was a real feel-good moment, I have a grandson who has special needs in Worland Middle School, and I look forward to him being able to benefit from that certificate. The standardization of that, I think, is a very positive thing for our state, because we do have a unique position in Wyoming in that we fund 100 percent, through federal grants, special education.”

Upcoming on Lawley’s agenda in Education is Senate File 133. The bill, sponsored by Senator Wendy Schuler (R-Uinta County), seeks to prevent trans women from competing in interscholastic sports. Lawley said she hoped the bill would make it out of committee to be debated, in support of the legislation. “One of my personal philosophies is that we are sent down there to vote on these issues, even though they are hard and don’t always have easy solutions, and debate on them and in some cases, if we agree, to then speak to those issues in the Legislature,” Lawley said.

Lawley also supports Senate File 174, which would authorize charter school creation, set to be heard in the Education Committee this week. “I tend to feel like we need to move forward and explore charter schools, I do believe in school choice, that we should give parents some choices in terms of education of their children,” Lawley said, suggesting that charter schools could increase competition and create overall better education.

In the Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, Lawley saw Senate File 116, which would provide qualified immunity from civil lawsuits to firearm manufacturers and sellers if they legally sold a gun used in a violent crime.

“We live in a culture right now where lawsuits are used to purposely destroy companies that do things certain groups don’t like, like sell guns for example. They use the legal system to really bankrupt them in certain ways,” Lawley said. “[Senate File 116] is really tightly written to make sure that there are protections in there where if people aren’t operating under the law, or their products are defective. If they are, then they have no immunity for that,” Lawley said, in favor of the legislation.

House Bill 83 has been controversial in the Legislature and the media and passed its second reading in the Senate on Friday despite concerns from local tribes. The bill would authorize the governor to negotiate and enter into agreements with tribes concerning hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering. Concerns had been raised over whether the bill would put tribal hunting codes under state authority.

“I think it’s fair to say that this is the beginning of a very long journey to establish a good working relationship between the state of Wyoming, through the governor’s office, and Indian tribes as they coordinate with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in conservation efforts,” Lawley said, adding that the bill was designed to create agreements, which would require support from both sides to incite any change.

Lawley also supported House Bill 7, which would create a minimum marriage age in Wyoming. Under the legislation, any person under the age of 16 would be ineligible for marriage, with a guardian’s consent required under the age of 18.

“It’s a significant issue to me personally,” Lawley said. “I’ve had an opportunity to sit down with women who have come out of human trafficking and hear their stories, and one instance was a situation where a young girl was sold into trafficking by her father, who was a drug addict. So, we can talk about parents’ rights, but we also know families are broken. We can talk about religious liberties, but we know there’s abuses. We can talk and should talk about child protection, and I have seen the evidence of child abuse and neglect. We’re balancing all of that, and I come down in favor that we need to do what we need to do to stop the exploitation of these girls.”

Lawley said she is looking forward to the last two weeks of this session, and appreciates the support and prayers of her constituents. She said that out of the over 1,000 emails she has received so far in this session, only about 20 are from constituents, the others are form emails from action groups. She encouraged citizens to interact with the government by asking questions about and providing their viewpoints on upcoming legislation. “I’m always open to listening to what their position is,” she said.