Casper staff present draft Parks and Recreation anti-bullying policy; council signals informal support

City of Casper Parks, Recreation and Public Facilities staff on Monday presented a draft department-specific anti-bullying policy and outlined plans for training, reporting and enforcement.

Interim Parks and Public Facilities Director Nick Whipps told the council the policy’s primary goal is “to provide a safe and protected environment for everybody we serve,” and said the draft was developed collaboratively with Parks & Rec staff, human resources, risk management and the city attorney’s office. He said the draft is tailored to the department’s repeated youth-facing interactions and covers multiple forms of bullying — staff-to-staff, patron-to-staff and patron-to-patron — with definitions and proactive standards aimed at helping staff identify and adjudicate incidents.

Whipps said implementation would include staff training on the policy’s definitions and reporting process, visible posting of the policy in facilities, and multiple reporting pathways including informal and formal routes and an anonymous phone reporting option; he said Human Resources would be involved when incidents required HR processes.

Council members asked whether national standards informed the draft; Whipps said staff consulted guidance from the National Recreation and Park Association when shaping types and examples of bullying relevant to recreation settings. A councilor asked how enforcement would work in practice — for example, whether a violator could be barred from city facilities — and Whipps said responses depend on the circumstance and the reporting path used.

The city attorney reminded council that trespass or exclusion of a member of the public implicates due process rights and cross-referenced other standalone city policies and hearing procedures; he said the draft appropriately references those policies and that his office would assist in cases that required a formal hearing.

During questioning, one councilor raised whether recent statutory changes reported in Cowboy State Daily (concerning school staff and restroom/pronoun issues) would apply to the recreation center; the attorney and staff said they believed the city’s practices and signage are in compliance and that the municipality has authority to set conduct standards within the framework of its non-discrimination ordinance.

Whipps and staff confirmed the draft explicitly prohibits bullying on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation and said they could consider adding other protected classes; one councilor recommended matching the policy language to the city’s non-discrimination ordinance to ensure consistent protected-class wording.

Council members expressed informal support for adopting the department’s policy with those edits, but the transcript shows no formal motion or recorded roll-call vote adopting the policy that evening. The staff recommendation recorded in the meeting packet was that council approve implementation; council signaled general agreement and asked staff to return with final language and implementation steps for training and posting.

What’s next: Staff will revise the draft to align with the non-discrimination ordinance language as requested, finalize implementation details with HR and risk management, and return to council for next procedural steps (no formal adoption vote was recorded in the transcript).