Maine mom's child's gender ordeal cries out for Team Trump

It was a day like any other for Maine mom Amber Lavigne, until she stumbled across something in her 13-year-old daughter’s bedroom that would change the course of their lives: a chest binder, which is used to flatten the wearer’s chest to create a more masculine appearance. When Amber spoke with her daughter about this, she learned that a male social worker at the Great Salt Bay Community School had given this chest binder to her child in his office, instructed her on how to use it, gave her advice about "changing" her gender, and told the student she didn’t need to tell her parents about any of it. 

As Amber dug deeper, she uncovered an even more troubling truth: it wasn’t just one person at the school keeping things from her. School officials had been referring to her daughter by a different name and using different pronouns — effectively pushing her into a "social transition" without Amber's knowledge.  

So, it came as no surprise last week when the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the Maine Department of Education over the decision of Maine schools to hide information about gender transitions from parents.  

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At every step in Amber’s case, the school has denied, obfuscated and refused to turn over any records related to her minor child and the school social worker. To this day, Amber has been unable to obtain the records she seeks about her child from the taxpayer-funded school.  

The school board never punished anyone in connection with either the social transitioning of Amber’s daughter without her knowledge or the social worker’s decision to give the child a chest binder. Instead, the board unanimously approved a contract extension for that same employee after the Goldwater Institute, where I work, sued the district on Amber’s behalf for violating her parental rights.  

This isn’t just happening in Amber’s district. Late last month, a new report exposed 57 Maine school districts for having policies that allow the school to hide from parents whether school officials are referring to their children as a different gender. But even school districts without these explicit policies are still hiding information from parents and excluding them from their child’s education.  

Of particular concern to the U.S. Department of Education is how Maine schools could be manipulating a state law that allows social workers to establish confidential relationships with a child at the child’s school to prevent parents from exercising their right to inspect and review education records related to their child’s counseling.  

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This would violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a law that protects student privacy, while ensuring the right of parents to access their own child’s educational records.  

That’s exactly how the Great Salt Bay Community used this law. Amber requested all the records from her daughter’s sessions with the school social worker. But Superintendent Lyndsey Johnston refused to hand them over, citing the Maine statute. In other words, the department’s concerns about how this law could potentially be used have already been realized with Amber’s case.  

The Great Salt Bay Community School has not only refused to take responsibility for its actions, its leaders have criticized Amber for continuing to ask for information about her daughter.  

Moreover, the superintendent refused to continue meeting with her after the school decided not to punish the social worker, but did offer to meet with her child alone – a laughable "solution" considering the school’s previous actions.  

The school board even blamed Amber’s public criticism and statements for bomb threats against the school, even though public records requests proved they had no evidence whatsoever that the threats had any connection to Amber’s case. 

Amber’s lawsuit against the school for violating her constitutionally protected parental rights is currently pending before the First Circuit. But the U.S. Department of Education’s investigation highlights the need for state-based policies to promote parental rights and academic transparency in public education.