A Maine mother who claims a school counsellor secretly gave her 13-year-old daughter a chest binder has filed a federal lawsuit against her school board.
Amber Lavigne alleges that the Great Salt Bay Community School Board violated her constitutional rights when school staff provided her daughter with the gender-transitioning device.
The lawsuit reportedly alleges that the school authority’s transgender guidelines ‘are unconstitutional insofar as they provide for the concealment of, or do not mandate informing parents of, a decision to provide “gender-affirming” care to a student.’
Lavigne was joined in her lawsuit by lawyers with the conservative Goldwater Institute, with the case also allegedly stemming from claims that social worker Sam Roy encouraged the 13-year-old to keep the device a secret from her parents.
Amber Lavigne, of Wiscasset, discovered her daughter’s chest binder in her room while her eighth-grader was at a school dance. The garment – which looked like a tank top with a built-in bra – smelled strongly when she found it as her daughter had been hiding it
She later learned her daughter’s counselor Sam Roy (pictured) had bought her two binders and told her she didn’t have to tell her parents and he wouldn’t either
Lavigne discovered the chest binder in her daughter’s room while the eighth-grader was at a school dance.
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The garment – which looked like a tank top with a built-in bra – smelled strongly when she found it, as though her daughter had been hiding it from her and not put it in her laundry bin.
When Lavigne confronted the 13-year-old that night, she claimed a friend had purchased it for her. But after pressing her for more information, the young girl admitted the binder ‘came from my school.’
After confronting Superintendent Lynsey Johnston and Principal Kim Shaff about the issue, she claims that they appeared to support Roy’s actions.
She said when she first contacted Principal Kim Schaff that she had received support, but the school would later back Roy – who is still employed there – when she asked for a meeting with him
Lavigne claims school officials also declined to turn over records, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, according to The National Review.
The mother’s lawsuit alleges that school officials ‘intentionally concealed’ her daughter’s gender counseling from her.
‘This was no accident: my daughter’s public school counselor deliberately tried to keep me in the dark, encouraging my daughter’s gender transition and encouraging her to hide it from me,’ the mother said in a statement alongside the Goldwater Institute.
‘When school officials found out, they actually defended the counselor’s actions, trampling on my constitutional rights at every turn. I deserve to know what’s happening to my child — the secrecy needs to stop.’
