School supported 13-year-old’s gender transition while hiding it from mom, lawsuit says

A mother found a chest binder while helping clean out her teen’s bedroom and learned a school counselor had given it to the middle schooler, according to a federal lawsuit.

She then learned her 13-year-old’s school was referring to the teen with a new name and different pronouns in addition to providing the chest binder, which can flatten the appearance of one’s chest, a complaint says.

The Newcastle, Maine, parent accuses school officials at Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta of supporting and hiding her teen’s “gender transition” from her, according to her lawsuit filed on April 4. She’s suing the school board, school district Superintendent Lynsey Johnston, the principal and two school counselors.

The mom argues her constitutional rights as a parent were violated as the school “socially” transitioned her child “in secret,” according to a news release from Goldwater Institute, a conservative and libertarian think tank based in Phoenix, Arizona, which represents her in the case.

McClatchy News contacted Johnston for comment on April 10 and didn’t immediately receive a response.

School policies on informing parents about their child’s gender identity and social transitioning differamong states. In some states, including California, Maryland and New Jersey, state guidelines advise schools against disclosing such information without a student’s consent, according to The New York Times.

Civil rights advocates warn against schools “outing” transgender youth to their families, which can be potentially dangerous for those not supported at home, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Alabama is the only state with a law requiring schools to force the “outing” of transgender students and disclose that information to their families, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank. Other states, such as Florida, Kentucky, Utah and Arizona, promote doing so through state law.

The Maine mom’s lawsuit is similar to other civil cases filed in recent months, according to the Associated Press.

Mom wants to ‘control and direct the care’ for her teen

The mom argues that when school officials didn’t inform her of providing her teen with a chest binder and referring to the student with gender-pronouns and a name “not associated” with the 13-year-old’s biological sex, it went against her 14th Amendment rights, according to her lawsuit.

Specifically, the complaint states the school violated her right as a parent “to control and direct the care, custody, education, upbringing, and healthcare decisions, etc., of their children.”

In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause protects the right of parents to have authority in the care, upbringing and education of their child in the case of Washington v. Glucksberg.

After the mom found the chest binder on Dec. 2, her teen told her that one school counselor provided it and instructed how to use it in his office, the complaint says. The counselor said he wouldn’t tell the student’s parents and that the student didn’t need to do so either, according to the complaint.

On Dec. 5, the mom met with the school principal and Johnston to discuss the information about her teen that was “withheld” from her, the complaint says.

“When school officials found out, they actually defended the counselor’s actions … I deserve to know what’s happening to my child — the secrecy needs to stop,” the mom said in a statement.

The complaint says Johnston later told the parent that school staff hadn’t violated any school policies when it came to her child.

The mom pulled her teen out of school on Dec. 8 and started homeschooling the student, according to the complaint.

Maine guidelines on supporting LGBTQ+ students instruct schools to use the name and gender identity a student desires and not doing so could violate the Maine Human Rights Act and Maine’s bullying law.

The Maine Human Rights Commission Memo published in 2016 states all school staff “should be required to address the student by the student’s chosen name and use pronouns consistent with the student’s gender identity.”

In a separate case, a sixth-grade teacher in Massachusetts was fired after telling a father that his 11-year-old was using a different name and pronoun, The New York Times reported.

After learning this, the man sued the school district and accused it of violating his rights as a parent, according to the Times.

A federal judge dismissed the case in December — before he filed an appeal in January — and ruled that “affirming a student’s gender identity” is a matter of giving a “person the basic level of respect expected in a civil society generally,” the Times reported.

The judge also wrote, however, that “it is disconcerting” school administrators may “actively hide information from parents about something of importance regarding their child,” according to the Times.

More on potential dangers of ‘outing’ transgender youth

In the Maine mom’s complaint, she says she never gave school officials a reason to believe her child would be endangered upon learning her teen’s preference to use a new name and different pronouns.

“Consequently there is no rational basis for the Defendants’ withholding and concealing such information,” the complaint says.

The U.S. Department of Education’s policy letter on transgender students acknowledges that students have a right to privacy when it comes to their personal information, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality fact sheet.

“While many transgender students have the support of their families, some do not have supportive families, and inadvertent disclosures could even put the student in danger,” the nonprofit social equality organization’s fact sheet says.

The physical and emotional well-being of some trans youth may be at risk when they disclose their gender identity to family members who may not be supportive, according to the ACLU.

Trans individuals face higher chances of abuse and rejection from a family member due to their gender identity, according to the organization.

“For trans youth, especially those who cannot be safe at home, school may be one of the few places to be themselves,” the ACLU says.

The Maine mom’s lawsuit was filed after the Goldwater Institute demanded Great Salt Bay Community School create a policy that would require staff to inform parents of any decision affecting the mental health and physical well-being of their children, according to the organization’s news release.

With the complaint, the mom says she will not send her two younger children to Great Salt Bay Community School “because she cannot trust that school officials will be truthful toward her about their individual circumstances.”

Damariscotta is about 55 miles northeast of Portland.

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