In a decision that marks the end of the road for a local lawsuit that made national headlines, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reconsider a lower court’s dismissal of a parent’s lawsuit against Great Salt Bay Community School officials.
Amber Lavigne, of Newcastle, filed suit against the Great Salt Bay School Committee, GSB employees Samuel Roy and Jessica Berk and Principal Kim Schaff, and then AOS 93 Superintendent Lynsey Johnston in April 2023, alleging school and district officials violated Lavigne’s 14th Amendment rights by not notifying Lavigne that her child was using a different name and pronouns at school and had been given two chest binders by Roy, a school social worker.
The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution establishes guidelines for citizenship, due process, equal protection under the law, and congressional enforcement.
In a four-count complaint, Lavigne alleged school committee and school officials committed substantive due process violations by providing chest binders and information about how to use them to her child without informing Lavigne; by using her child’s self-identified name and pronouns and withholding that information from Lavigne; and by adopting the transgender students guidelines that enabled staff members to withhold information from parents.
In the fourth count Lavigne alleged she was deprived of procedural due process as she was not afforded an opportunity to comment on school officials’ decisions to give her child chest binders or use the child’s self-identified name and pronouns.
In their request for dismissal filed on June 2, 2023, the defendants denied “each and every allegation.” In their filing, the defendants acknowledged Roy helped the student obtain a chest binder, but argued school officials had been in discussion with Lavigne about her child’s request to use a different name and pronouns at school “for some time” and that Lavigne was informed of the matter.
In her filing, Lavigne said her alleged injuries were caused by “an unwritten withholding policy,” which she described as “a systematic across-the-board practice which is not specified, but is hinted at, in the written ‘guidelines.’”
She posed three possible theories of municipal liability: unwritten policy or custom, ratification by a final policymaker, and failure to train.
In a ruling handed down in May 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Jon D. Levy granted the school committee’s motion to dismiss Lavigne’s lawsuit, finding the complaint did not adequately plead facts that could plausibly support municipal liability. Levy did not address any 14th Amendment concerns in his ruling.
Lavigne appealed the decision to the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard the case in October 2024 and issued a ruling in July 2025, affirming the lower court’s decision.
While declining to take up the case last week, the U.S. Supreme Court did not issue a reason for its decision.
In a prepared statement, Lavigne’s attorney, Goldwater Institute Senior Attorney Adam Shelton expressed disappointment the court will not hear the Lavigne’s appeal, adding the decision signals schools across the country hiding information from parents does not run afoul of the Constitution.
“We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will one day hold that a public school’s policy that permits a social worker to give a child a chest binder and other school officials to socially transition a child without ever telling parents violates the Constitution’s protection for parental rights,” Shelton said.
In a comment to the Portland Press Herald, Melissa Hewey, the attorney for the Great Salt Bay Community School Committee, pointed out Lavigne’s case has now been dismissed at every level.
“It is gratifying to all our clients that this claim, which had no merit from day one, is finally over,” she said.
