Maine mom files lawsuit against school staffers who counseled daughter on transition: 'This was no accident'
A mother in Maine sues school district after a counselor encouraged her 13-year-old daughter to undergo a gender transition
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A mother in Maine filed a federal lawsuit against her daughter's school district after a counselor encouraged her 13-year-old to undergo a gender transition, gave her a chest binder and urged her not to tell her parents.
Amber Lavigne sued the Great Salt Bay Community School Board and other school officials in federal court Tuesday for violating her constitutionally protected parental rights, and allowing her daughter to undergo a "social transition" without her parents' knowledge or consent, according to the complaint filed by the Goldwater Institute on her behalf. School officials refused to provide answers regarding the transition when pressed in February.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In December, Lavigne found a chest binder, an undergarment used to flatten breasts, in her daughter’s belongings. She started to investigate where it came from and found out that a school social worker had been seeing her daughter since October during which time she secretly gave her the undergarment to wear without her parents knowing. In addition, school personnel had already been referring to the student using a different name and pronouns, which is known as "socially transitioning."
Gender identity policies have sparked conversation in multiple areas of education, including sports. (AP Photo/Samuel Metz, File)
The social worker told her daughter that they wouldn't inform her parents about the gender transition and suggested she didn't need to speak with them about it, either. When Lavigne contacted school officials, they reportedly attempted to justify the counselor's actions.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"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. "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 lawsuit follows unmet demands by Lavigne and the Goldwater Institute who asked the school board to investigate the counselor’s actions and consider adoption of a policy that would require the district to inform parents of any decision that affects their child's mental health or physical wellbeing. The school board has not engaged with Goldwater and has continued to assert all policies were properly followed.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Goldwater Institute Staff Attorney Adam Shelton, who is the lead attorney on the case, said the Supreme Court "has repeatedly held, over the last century, that parents have a fundamental right to control and direct the education, upbringing, and healthcare decisions of their children."
"But parents cannot meaningfully exercise this right if public schools hide vital information about their children from them—which is exactly what the Great Salt Bay Community School did to Ms. Lavigne," he added.
A protester holds a cardboard poster reading, 'Science Teachers Know Gender Is a Social Construct' during a Black Trans Lives Matter rally in New York, NY on Sept. 19, 2022. (ohn Nacion/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Public schools across the country have been accused of students' gender transitions from their parents.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In a similar case filed in January, a mother in northern California sued the Chico Unified School District after a school counselor helped her 11-year-old daughter consider a gender transition without parental notification.
"They were talking to my daughter about different support groups in town to help her with her transition and then discussed breast binding with my daughter that I had no knowledge of," Regino previously told "America's Newsroom" in February. "I just want them to stop — stop keeping parents in the dark."
Another mother in Florida filed suit in May 2022 after her child transitioned at school without her consent, issuing a stark warning to parents across the country.
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This is happening all over the nation," Littlejohn warned on" Fox & Friends First." "This same protocol is in place in many, many schools across districts everywhere, and even the guides being used to dictate these transgender support plans that cut parents out even have the same language."