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Mother sues Damariscotta school alleging counselor helped her child transition gender
Bangor Daily News - 4/5/2023
Apr. 5—A Newcastle mother has sued the Great Salt Bay Community School Board and school officials alleging that staff helped her 13-year-old begin socially transitioning from female to male without telling her, which she claims violates the law.
Amber Lavigne sued the district Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland. She is represented by attorneys with the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix.
The school is part of the Central Lincoln School District, also known as Alternative Organizational Structure 93. It is made up of Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Jefferson, Newcastle, Nobleboro and South Bristol.
Lavigne alleges that a school counselor at the Damariscotta school in December gave her daughter chest binders, allowed her to use a male name and pronouns and told the child not to tell her mother.
The superintendent did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
The school district maintains it did nothing illegal, according to the lawsuit.
"This was no accident: my daughter's public school counselor deliberately tried to keep me in the dark, encouraging my daughter's gender transition and encouraging her to hide it from me," Lavigne said in a statement issued by her attorney. "When school officials found out, they actually defended the counselor's actions, trampling on my constitutional rights at every turn. I deserve to know what's happening to my child — the secrecy needs to stop."
The mother is seeking an injunction preventing the school from calling her children by a different name or pronouns without her consent, asking the court to award her nominal damages of $1 for the violations of her constitutional rights and unspecified damages accrued by removing the child from the school.
The district's policy for staff on conduct with students, which was filed with the lawsuit, lists asking a student to keep a secret as "prohibited conduct."
Lavigne's three children no longer attend the school, according to attorney Brett Baber of Bangor.
The lawsuit claims the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that the 14th Amendment protects the rights of parents to control and direct the care, custody, education, upbringing and health care decisions of their children — a right the court has characterized as fundamental.
The 14th Amendment states that: "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Lavigne maintains in the lawsuit that the Great Salt Bay Community School Transgender Student Guidelines violate her parental rights and due process rights by withholding and concealing information from her.
The school claims that it is following the law. In a letter to parents dated Feb. 26 and attached to the lawsuit, Principal Kim Schiff said that school employees are required to follow the provisions of the federal Civil Rights Act and the Maine Human Rights Act that provide protections against discrimination.
"These laws provide rights to all individuals, including our students, that must be protected and upheld and these laws guide the actions of school employees," she said. "Another Maine law states that 'a school counselor or school social worker may not be required, except as provided by this section, to divulge or release information gathered during a counseling relation with a client or with the parent, guardian or a person or agency having legal custody of a minor client.'"
Schiff also said that "a misunderstanding of these laws" had led to school and staff members becoming targets of hate speech and ongoing threats. The school lost three days of classes to those threats and security had to be increased, she said.
In addition to the school board and Schiff, Superintendent Lynsey Johnston and school social workers Samuel Roy and Jessica Berk were named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Founded in 1988 in Arizona, the institute, named for former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, is "a free-market public policy research and litigation organization dedicated to advancing the principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual liberty, with a focus on education, free speech, health care, equal protection, property rights, occupational licensing and constitutional limits," according to its website.
"Public schools should never hide things from parents — whether it's curriculum content or matters of health," Joe Setyon, communications manager for the institute, said Wednesday.
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