Medomak Valley High School students return to their seats after delivering a petition in support of the district’s transgender and gender expansive student policy to RSU 40 Board of Directors Chair Danny Jackson on the evening of Thursday, June 6. More than 100 students signed the petition, according to MVHS freshman C.J. Pleucker. (Molly Rains photo)
At about 1:30 a.m. on Friday, June 7, the RSU 40 Board of Directors voted to repeal a policy outlining protections for transgender and gender expansive students.
The narrow vote was called at the conclusion of a meeting that lasted more than six hours and featured comments from nearly 100 members of the public.
Of the 99 commenters, 72 spoke in favor of retaining the policy, while 24 advocated for its deletion.
The board of directors was more divided, splitting the group 8-8 for and against deleting the policy.
With the district’s weighted voting, this resulted in a 505-495 vote to delete the policy. RSU 40 includes the five towns of Friendship, Union, Waldoboro, Warren, and Washington.
The transgender and gender expansive student policy stipulated how RSU 40 staff should support and interact with students who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.
The policy specified that meetings be held to address such students’ specific educational needs, that staff use a child’s preferred name and pronouns as requested, and that the child can use restrooms and locker rooms that most closely match their gender identity.
The policy also stated administrators should discuss parent/guardian involvement with the student before informing parents/guardians, if they are unaware of the student’s identity, but went on to say that “students should be informed that parents/guardians have a right to access all education records of their child and therefore the school cannot keep the change in name and/or gender a secret.”
RSU 40 must remain in compliance with state laws that protect transgender and gender expansive people with or without the policy in place, Kit Thomson Crossman, executive director of the Maine Human Rights Commission, said at the meeting.
“That’s not to say that the policy has no value. The policy provides useful and necessary guidance to your staff and to your teachers, and it certainly makes students feel more comfortable,” Thomson Crossman said.
RSU 40 administrators also said at the meeting that the policy provided them with guidance on how to remain in compliance with state law, including the Maine Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on protected classes including LGBTQ+ groups.
“This is a complex issue, and the policy provides guidance and also provides transparency,” RSU 40 Superintendent Steve Nolan said.
Board members who were in favor of removing the policy did not deny it reflected state law, but said that fact made the policy redundant and unnecessary.
They also expressed beliefs that it infringed on parents’ rights and that the policy of allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with would jeopardize the safety of female students who are cisgender, meaning that they identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.
Board member Nichole Taylor, of Union, said she was concerned about parental rights. She and board member Jeanette Wheeler, of Waldoboro, both of whom had voted in favor of deleting the policy in May, rejected the idea that they were acting out of hate.
“I’m resentful of that,” Wheeler said.
Board member Naomi Aho, of Warren, said other districts across Maine do not have a similar policy in place and she believed the policy was unnecessary.
Board member Joshua Blackman, of Warren, who said in a phone call on May 21 that he had been the one to request the policy be pulled for review, said he had done so because he believed the policy was dangerous and discriminatory against people who are not transgender or gender expansive.
In that call, Blackman also said he saw some of the issues faced by the school board, including the discussion of this policy, as moral struggles. Blackman kept a Bible visible on the table before him during the proceedings on both May 16 and June 6.
However, on June 6, neither Blackman nor board member Noah Botley, of Washington, addressed the crowd during the meeting. As chair of the policy committee, Botley made the motion to delete the transgender and gender expansive student policy. Botley did not respond to a request for further comment.
Board members who opposed the deletion criticized what they saw as an ideological push to ban the policy, a move which they said only obscured – but did not negate – the district’s legally mandated responsibility to support transgender students.
“This is not the venue to make the changes you seem to be looking for,” said board member Julie Swindler, of Warren.
Board member Julia Abernethy, of Washington, referred to comments from RSU 40 constituents made at the meeting. Some speakers came from outside the district, she said, noting that by her count, speakers from the five RSU 40 towns in favor of retaining the policy had numbered 67, while locals in favor of deletion had numbered 10.
Board member Emily Trask-Eaton, of Waldoboro, shared her experiences as a family practice physician caring for transgender and gender expansive people.
“They don’t choose it. It has to do with hormones and endocrine substances,” Trask-Eaton said.
She also called back to a rash of suicides among young people in the Waldoboro area in the early 1990s, bringing up the high rate of suicides among transgender youth and calling on the board to create a welcoming environment to protect them.
“Put away your personal beliefs,” she said. “They’re just asking for help. Keep them alive.”
The majority of the meeting was spent in public comment, which lasted approximately four and a half hours.
The atmosphere among audience members in the packed gymnasium was tense. Ray Anderson, of Friendship, who spoke first, advocated for the policy’s deletion and alluded to a possibility for conflict.
“For mercy’s sake, I’m here, because I could have come hard, I could have done something different. I could have brought my friends. We could have made a show of force … but instead, I wanted to appeal to mercy,” Anderson said. “We need a leadership that will bring unity … I do not want to see a civil war.”
Those speaking in favor of maintaining the policy included transgender and gender expansive students, alumni, and community members, who said that policies like RSU 40’s provided them the support and visibility they needed to feel safe; RSU 40 administrators and staff, who said the policy was important to their everyday operations; and community members of all ages.
A group of students led by Medomak Valley High School ninth grader C.J. Pluecker presented RSU 40 Board of Directors Chair Danny Jackson with a petition they said was signed by more than 100 MVHS students in support of retaining the policy.
“Public schools are secular government and educational institutions. As such, policy decisions ought to be based on evidence, research, and objective reality,” said MVHS science teacher Kristin Sims.
Robert Smith, of Waldoboro, read from a document mailed to some Waldoboro residents and paid for by conservative political organization Maine First, headquartered in Brewer, championing the steps taken by the board to repeal the policy.
“Members of this board are drawing inspiration from recognized hate groups to use the exact same language to characterize gender-variant students as mentally ill, while political extremists like (Maine First founder) Larry Lockman are celebrating the board’s actions,” Smith said.
Commenters who advocated repealing the policy included community members who said they feared the policy would be taken advantage of.
Amber Levine, of Newcastle, addressed Finian Kelly, the RSU 40 Board of Directors student representative who on May 16 advocated in favor of accommodating transgender and gender expansive students by speaking to his own experience receiving accommodations at school for his Type I diabetes.
“Do you think that perhaps if you were able to self-proclaim this diagnosis and receive accommodations without a medical diagnosis that some of your peers would also proclaim a diabetes diagnosis?” Levine asked.
“No,” Kelly responded.
Levine said she did not believe students should be able to “self-proclaim” their transgender identity.
The crowd grew agitated when Levine addressed another remark to Kelly.
“I’m also curious if there were special flags flown in honor of your brave diagnosis with special months celebrated,” she said.
Audience members wave pride flags while Rachel Genthner, of Waldoboro, speaks to the RSU 40 Board of Directors on Thursday, June 6. “I hope you’ll open your hearts and think twice before causing hatred,” Genthner said. (Molly Rains photo)
Board members Henry and Matthew Speno, of Union, asked Levine to refrain from addressing Kelly.
Members of the clergy also spoke on both sides of the issue, invoking the Bible both in support of and against the policy.
Audience with the public was closed at 12:08 a.m. on Friday morning and the board’s vote occurred close to 1:30 a.m. after discussion and two failed amendment requests from board members Joseph Henry, of Friendship, and Sandra O’Farrell, of Waldoboro.
“I know it sounds exhausting, but not everyone in this room is feeling represented,” said Henry, requesting that the motion to delete the policy be tabled.
Botley rejected that request, saying that he believed the policy had to be rebuilt.
O’Farrell later requested to amend the motion so that the existing policy could remain on the books only until a replacement could be drafted.
“I truly believe we need to start from scratch,” Botley said.
The vote was then held by roll-call.
Board members who voted in favor of deleting the policy were Aho, Blackman, Botley, Taylor, Wheeler, Henry, Randy Kassa, of Warren; and Melvin Williams, of Waldoboro.
Board members who voted against deleting the policy were Abernethy, Swindler, Trask-Eaton, Jackson, Erik Amundsen, of Union; O’Farrell; Brooke Simmons, of Friendship; and Speno.
With the policy now deleted, the board may choose to write another version, but the timeline for that is not clear. In the meantime, administrators from the district indicated that they plan to continue to use the policy as a procedure until new guidance is issued.
“In the absence of having a policy, I feel like I have to use it as an administrative procedure so that we’ll be able to provide guidance for our administrators in a way that’s consistent across the district to ensure that we’re following the law,” Nolan said during the meeting.
Julia Levensaler, principal at Miller School, indicated during the meeting that she would do the same.
Reached by email on Friday, June 7, Linda Pease, principal at Medomak Valley High School, said procedures at the high school will remain unchanged.
The next meeting of the RSU 40 Board of Directors will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 20 at the RSU 40 central office at 1070 Heald Highway in Union. For more information, go to rsu40.org or call 785-2277.
