Great Salt Bay School Committee member August Avantaggio listens to AOS 93 Superintendent Lynsey Johnston at the committee’s April 12 meeting as she reads a statement responding to a lawsuit filed against school officials. Johnston, who is one of the defendants, said defendants were confident former GSB parent Amber Lavigne would not win her case. (Elizabeth Walztoni photo)
AOS 93 leadership has said it is confident former Great Salt Bay Community School parent Amber Lavigne will not win the lawsuit she filed against school officials alleging violation of her 14th Amendment rights.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on April 4, listed GSB social workers Samuel Roy and Jessica Berk, Principal Kim Schaff, and AOS 93 Superintendent Lynsey Johnston as defendants alongside the seven-member Great Salt Bay School Committee, identified as the GSB School Board.
Lavigne’s complaint argues the school violated her constitutional rights as a parent by not notifying her that her child, identified in the lawsuit as A.B., was using a different name and pronouns at school and had been given two chest binders by Roy. She seeks injunctive relief, declaratory judgment, and damages.
Johnston shared a short statement on the case following an executive session for legal advice at the Great Salt Bay School Committee’s regular meeting on Wednesday, April 12. Her statement was the first official comment on the suit since it was filed.
Johnston said that, although Lavigne is free to make allegations, those will have to be proved for her to win the case, and “we are confident that she will not be able to do so.”
She went on to say that GSB does not have a policy of keeping secrets from parents, never has, and never will.
“We look forward to vindicating the dedicated professionals who work in our schools for the benefit of the youth in our community through this court action,” Johnston said.
Lavigne declined to comment on the statement.
The lead attorney on her case, Adam Shelton, of the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, returned comment through a spokesperson on Friday, April 14.
“Ms. Johnston’s comments are hard to reconcile with the situation … If no policies were violated, and if no individual school official was punished in relation to these incidents, it seems clear that the GSB School Board has a policy – written or unwritten – of keeping certain information from parents,” he said.
In the filing, Lavigne alleges the defendants used a “policy, pattern, and practice” of withholding information from parents under the guise of state law.
Her filing focuses on two policies in place at the school, a set of transgender student guidelines and a policy for staff conduct with students.
Lavigne alleges Roy violated the staff conduct policy when giving the chest binder to A.B.; she said at the December committee meeting that he asked A.B. to keep it a secret, a request the policy lists as an example of prohibited behavior.
The lawsuit’s account of facts says Roy “gave A.B. the chest binder in his office, and told A.B. that he was not going to tell A.B.’s parents about the chest binder, and A.B. need not do so either.”
Lavigne alleges this event, and the policies cited in the school’s response, deprive her of her 14th Amendment right to raise her children and be involved in decisions about their development.
The 14th Amendment states, “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 is represented by attorney Brett Baber, of Bangor-based Lanham, Blackwell, and Baber, and Adam Shelton, of the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, Ariz.
AOS 93 retains Drummond Woodsum, of Portland, as its legal counsel.
The defendants have not filed a response to Lavigne’s suit as of Wednesday morning, April 19.
