A Newcastle mother has sued the Great Salt Bay Community School Board and school officials alleging that staff helped her 13-year-old begin 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.
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 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, award her nominal damages of $1 for the violations of her constitutional rights and unspecified damages accrued by removing the girl from the school.
Lavigne’s three children no longer attend the school, which is part of Central Lincoln School District, 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.
Founded in 1988 in Arizona, the institute, named for 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.
