A Newcastle mother has filed a complaint against the Great Salt Bay School Committee, three school employees, and AOS 93’s superintendent for allegedly violating her 14th Amendment rights.
Amber Lavigne, the parent of a 13-year-old who previously attended Great Salt Bay Community School, listed GSB social workers Samuel Roy and Jessica Berk, Principal Kim Schaff, and AOS 93 Superintendent Lynsey Johnston as defendants.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on April 4, also includes the seven-member school committee, identified as the GSB School Board, in a complaint for injunctive relief, declaratory judgment, and damages.
Lavigne’s complaint argues the school violated her 14th Amendment rights 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.
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.”
In the filing, Lavigne alleges the defendants used a “policy, pattern, and practice” of withholding information from parents under the guise of state law.
The district did not respond to a request for comment. Defendants had not filed response to the lawsuit as of Wednesday morning, April 12.
The suit focuses on information available to Lavigne about both the chest binders and her child’s use of a different name and pronouns in the context of two school policies, information the filing says affects the mental health and physical wellbeing of children.
The first count in the four-count complaint alleges the school committee violated Lavigne’s 14th Amendment rights as a parent by “making decisions about students with respect to issues that directly affect the mental health or physical well-being of a child without parental notice or consent.”
Further counts allege that the school committee caused Lavigne constitutional injuries by not training school employees about parental rights in student gender situations; that the school’s transgender student policy violates parental rights; and that the committee did not create a procedure to involve her in decisions about her child’s psychosexual development.
Lavigne requests a declaratory judgment by the court that the school violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment and an injunction preventing the school from using different names and pronouns for A.B. without Lavigne’s consent.
According to the filing, Lavigne seeks compensation for these claims and additional compensation for ongoing harm, as she has two younger children who will soon fall under the state’s compulsory education laws. The suit says she is currently homeschooling A.B.
She also seeks nominal damages of $1 for the alleged violations of her constitutional rights, an award of actual damages for removing her child from the school, and an award of attorney costs, along with other relief as deemed appropriate by the court.
According to the filing, Lavigne would reenroll her child at GSB if changes were made to school policy.
Included with the complaint were GSB’s transgender student guidelines policy and staff conduct with students policy.
Both policies adopted by the GSB committee were based on a sample from the Maine School Management Association, a nonprofit federation of public school officials that provides draft policies to schools across the state.
Adopted in 2019, GSB’s policy outlines a procedure for addressing student needs; it says a meeting “should” be scheduled with the student, parents or guardians, and a building administrator to develop a plan. Privacy guidance in the policy focuses on disclosure to staff and other students.
“School staff should take care to follow the student’s plan and not to inadvertently disclose information that is intended to be kept private or that is protected from disclosure” as outlined in the student plan, according to the policy.
The transgender student guidelines policy lists the Maine Human Rights Act as a legal reference. Similar policies are recommended by the Maine Department of Education’s website.
A 2016 guidance memo from the Maine Human Rights Commission for interpreting the act’s use in education specifies that school administrators and employees should address a student by their chosen name and pronouns if requested by the student.
The memo says that if a student and parent or guardian disagrees about the student’s orientation or identity, the school should abide by the student’s wishes. The memo does not direct the institution in informing parents.
According to the lawsuit, A.B. requested the use of the different name and pronouns.
GSB is the only school in AOS 93 with this policy in place. It was adopted in neighboring RSU 40 for the first time in 2018 and an updated version was approved earlier this year.
The student and staff conduct policy referenced by the lawsuit, adopted in 2013, outlines examples of prohibited conduct. All schools in the AOS have this policy in place except for Nobleboro Central School.
The lawsuit’s account of events 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.”
In a public comment made at the school committee’s regular meeting in December, Lavigne alleged the social worker had asked her child to keep the chest binder a secret, which is prohibited by the student and staff conduct policy.
A Feb. 26 letter from Schaff to GSB families, which was submitted with the lawsuit as evidence, said that under state law, a school counselor or social worker “may not be required” to share information a minor discloses to them during counseling.
Information students share with counseling staff is privileged communication under state law, meaning they have a right to privacy even as minors, according to Schaff.
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 Great Salt Bay School Committee’s next regular meeting agenda includes an executive session for legal advice. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12 at the Great Salt Bay Community School and online.
(LCN Editor Maia Zewert contributed to this article).
