The 68th Wyoming Legislature opened its first official day last week, beginning with the swearing in of all new members and then the State of the State address by Gov. Mark Gordon, followed by Supreme Court Justice Kate Fox.  Then the flurry of bills began.

As of this writing, there are over 700 bills that have been drafted. Interim bills are moved forward first, and then individual bills will be introduced next but with the sheer number of bills, it is very likely that not all of our individual bills will be heard.

I am excited and honored to be chosen as the Senate Education Chair for the next two years. There were a number of bills worked by this committee in the interim and it is up to our committee to work them and make sure they are what’s best for our Wyoming students, staffs and school districts. There are a number of new committee members so we hope to get them up to speed as quickly as possible.

I am bringing a bill to ban cellphones (during instruction time only) at our public schools. Eighteen states have passed legislation on this type of ban, and I believe this bill can be transformative for the success of our students.

There are some districts in Wyoming that are already trying to move this direction. The data shows that the states who have banned cellphones are seeing improvements in student achievement, improved mental health, and overall better social skills.

Each district will have local control to decide how to enforce this ban. There are exceptions for students on an IEP which requires one and also for those students who have health-related issues who need the phone or smartwatch. 

If you have the time to read the book, “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt, you will be amazed at the way our children have become rewired due to the overuse of cellphones, and it is causing an epidemic of mental illness. The least we can do is to ensure our kids have uninterrupted instructional time at school.

It will help them to be successful and it will help our teachers so they don’t have to spend so much time being the “cellphone police”.

I am also bringing another bill to ensure that our college women athletes will only have to compete with other biological women. It is a stand-alone bill that will hopefully encourage the NCAA and the NJCAA to deal with this issue rather than have colleges like UW and others in the Mountain West who chose to forfeit their volleyball games because of the safety and fairness issues brought forth by competing against a trans athlete from San Jose State.

I have two bills that are advocating for the safety of our children in Wyoming.  One deals with allowing a relative who has been parenting a child for more than two years while the parent has been termed unfit by the courts and had their rights terminated … for those relatives to be able to begin a process to become their guardian.

The other bill would allow child victims of sexual abuse or incest to have the option to testify on closed circuit if the court finds that testifying with the offender in the room would cause undue harm and emotional distress.

Another bill I am working on would allow CAA, or certified anesthesiologist assistants, to be certified in Wyoming. Other states have passed legislation for this option, which requires that the AA’s work under a registered anesthesiologist. There are 17 schools that provide this training and with the shortage of anesthesiologists this bill could help mitigate that.

I have one more bill that I am hoping to get moving forward but, with the back log of bills and the shortage of lawyers in the LSO, I am not sure it will happen this year.

I hope that you will all follow along with the bills on the wyoleg.gov website and please keep your emails, texts and phone calls coming. I will reiterate that an original letter or text works better.

Sometime when you jump on a “one click” politics or something like that, they sometimes end up in our junk folder. I don’t check that folder often, so just text or email and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Just remember that I represent all of you. It will always be “PEOPLE before politics or party.”  I do keep track of the emails and when I get 90 against and 5 for on a bill, I will vote for your voice (even if it sometimes is not really the way I think it should go).

I have thought about doing a Senate Facebook page, but when you see how negative and vile some of the folks who comment on those are, I have decided that I would rather visit with you face-to-face, via email, text or cellphone or at your local meetings and businesses. Please let me know if you have questions, and thanks again for your support.