(Lander, WY) - At the May 17 Fremont County School Board (FCSD) #1 meeting, the decision was made in a 4-3 vote to remove sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, marital status and pregnancy as specifically mentioned protected classes in the district discrimination policy.

At that meeting, over 40 public commenters made their voices heard on the matter, ranging from students, staff, parents, mental health counselors, veterans, folks in support of the change and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Council Members in favor of the protected class removal addressed concerns that protections would still be still in place, citing Wyoming statute and cases such as Bostock v. Clayton County, but those affected by the change were quick to point out the amount of day-to-day bullying that LGBTQ+ students face that goes unreported.

They also expressed concerns that removing sexual orientation and gender identity would lead to more bullying and discrimination.

Students at both Lander Valley High School and Lander Middle School eventually staged walkouts protesting the decision Tuesday afternoon.

LVHS student walkout. h/t Vince Tropea photo

County 10 caught up with a few of the LVHS students at their walkout, each of whom were too afraid to give their names for fear of increased bullying, with a few also hesitating to appear in the group picture, fearing blowback from fellow students and parents.

"The school Board is supposed to protect us, not take away our protections. That is completely unfair to veterans, pregnant people, LGBTQ people," one student stated.

"The School Board wants to say there's no problem with bullying against LGBTQ students, but it is a very big problem. We need to have School Board representatives that support the student body, and we're not getting that," another student claimed.

"Students do not report bad things that happen because they are scared that they will not be treated safely and be in a safe environment afterwards. If you take away our protections to be safe in our schools, then expect us to report it more after taking away our safety, I don't know you're expecting from that, but it's not going to be more reports," commented a third student to cheers from the group.

It should be noted, at the same May 17 School Board meeting where the decision was made, three FCSD #1 principals were asked to detail the process and outlets for reporting bullying, and the ways they go about addressing it, with each commenting every report of bullying is taken very serious and looked into.

In addition, the following message from Superintendent Dave Barker was posted on the district website on May 20:

"I wanted to address some of the concerns that I’ve seen discussed in various places since the board meeting of May 17 where a change was made to policy AC (non-discrimination) and associated policies that contained the non-discrimination language in them. Changing the language of the policies of non-discrimination does not eliminate any of the legally supported reasons for discrimination claims.

"Court cases have held that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal and other federal legislation makes discrimination based on pregnancy and veteran status illegal in employment decisions. This means the district must address any discrimination that is reported in these areas as well as those listed in the policy.

"I do understand the concern raised during public comments that removing the language could lead to an increase in negative interactions between students. I want to stress the importance of working with building administrators to report any concerns that arise. I have full confidence that our administrators investigate every complaint thoroughly and seriously. In some instances, they hear conflicting accounts of an incident, which makes it difficult to determine exactly what occurred. Even in these cases,