Students celebrated by Thermopolis school board

Hot Springs County High School Principal Catelyn Deromedi introduced the segment on student celebrations at the Hot Springs County School District 1 board meeting April 18, by calling upon Lyle Wiley, who won Speech and Debate Coach of the Year for their district, to name his students that received honors this season.

Wiley began by noting Thermopolis’ second-place finish in 2A at the state speech and debate meet this year. He then recognized River Quintanilla as a national speech and debate qualifier, as well as Korina Lea as a first alternate and Dean Bihr as second alternate for the competition.

Three speech and debate students were recognized as 1A/2A State Champions: Riley O’Brian in humor, Korina Lea in poetry, and Dean Bihr, a freshman, in Lincoln-Douglas Debate.

Next up, Thermopolis Wrestling coaches introduced their state placing athletes from the past season. Kaitlin Barral was recognized as Thermopolis’ first state placer in girls wrestling. Samuel Skelton was named as having placed fourth in his weight class, Brody Sorensen and Will Ward both placed second in theirs, and Roedy Farrell took first. Farrell, a senior, ended his career as a three-time state champion and four-time all-state wrestler with 120 career wins.

TRANSGENDER CONCERN

During public comment Joseph Casciato said, “I’m going to talk a little bit about transgenderism in school.” Casciato’s argument mostly revolved around the school district accepting federal funds as a member of the Association of Title IX Administrators. He was interested in knowing how much money the district received from the federal government, because “the Title IX mandate only goes into effect if they accept federal funds.” He said “I don’t know how much money you get from the federal government but it can’t be that much.”

Casciato’s concerns stem from Title IX’s protections offered to transgender athletes. He closed by saying, “I think that a lot of America’s problems are because we are violating God.”

The board policy on public comment is that they do not have to respond to questions or comments during a meeting and no comments were made regarding Casciato’s comments.