Teacher defends LGBT kindergarten lesson featured in anti-Mills ad

May 20—The Maine kindergarten teacher who made an LGBT-friendly instructional video at the heart of a new Republican attack ad is speaking out, saying the lesson was age-appropriate and that she is disappointed that Gov. Janet Mills removed the video from a Department of Education website.

In a statement she posted to Facebook on Friday, teacher Kailina Mills said the television ad that began running on Maine TV and radio stations on Wednesday has turned her face and her work into a "political football to pass around" without consent or concern for her personal life.

"The most disappointing part of all of this is that the Maine Department of Education and Mills administration caved to pressure instead of standing up for some of the most vulnerable people, families, and students in Maine," said Mills, who is not related to Gov. Mills.

On Wednesday, the day the ad dropped, the DOE and Gov. Mills issued separate statements saying the lesson plan entitled "Freedom Holidays" — one of 400 optional video lessons created during the COVID-19 pandemic to engage remote learners — was not appropriate for kindergartners.

"The governor was not aware of the lesson, but she understands the concerns expressed about the age appropriateness, and agrees with the Department of Education's decision to remove the lesson," Mills spokeswoman Lindsay Crete said on Wednesday, the day the attack ad began running.

Gov. Mills believes that decisions about what is taught in a classroom should be made by parents, community members, teachers and local elected school boards, Crete said, noting Maine's longstanding tradition of local control.

"She will continue to empower parents and elected school boards to make decisions about their kids' educations," Crete said, but concluded by noting that Mills "will continue to respect LGBTQ+ people as valued members of the Maine community."

The Department of Education wouldn't specify why it could not recommend "Freedom Holidays" for kindergartners. A spokesman said the video, for which Kailina Mills was paid $1,000, "should have received further review by a DOE specialist" before it was posted online.

The "Freedom Holidays" lesson was recommended as a social studies, language arts, and life-and-career lesson to teach kindergartners about rights, history and government. It explores holidays that celebrate freedoms, including those achieved by Black people, women and LGBTQ individuals.

The video includes an explanation of different gender identities, and the Republican ad attacking Mills focuses on her kindergarten-level description of what it means to be transgender.

"A transgender person is a person who doctors made a mistake about when they were born," she says in the video, explaining that doctors tell parents if a baby is male or female. "Some people when they get a little bit older realize that what the doctors said was not right."

On Friday, Kailina Mills said the topic was entirely age appropriate. She said she has taught preschoolers who are transgender and non-binary and interacted with LGBT parents. Those children and families deserve to be represented in their school curriculum, she said.

"Public schools are for everyone and should, therefore, include everyone," said Mills.

The former Whitefield Elementary School kindergarten teacher cited a 2020 study that found gender identity is usually established by first grade, and that almost all transgender individuals involved in the study had experienced the significant stress of wanting to be another gender by that time.

That stress should not be taken lightly, Mills said. Data show 82 percent of transgender individuals have considered taking their own lives, and 40 percent have attempted to do so, she said. Transgender youth are the most likely to commit suicide, studies show.

"Using accurate pronouns and receiving affirmation from families, teachers, peers, and doctors is suicide prevention," said Mills. "This affirming care must begin as early as kindergarten because that's when children are solidifying their gender identity."

Just because a topic may be hard to discuss does not mean that children aren't ready for it, said Mills.

"My goal as a teacher is to teach students how to interact across differences with kindness and respect," Mills said. "They cannot successfully learn how to communicate across these differences if they have never been exposed to the fact that these differences exist in the first place."

Erasing one form of difference from the curriculum is discrimination, Mills said.

If Republicans had objected to the Juneteenth part of her "Freedom Holidays" unit because it celebrated Black people, the Department of Education and Gov. Mills might have reacted differently because they would have known it was discrimination, Mills said.

"Why are Republicans' attacks on LGBT+ children and families any different?" Mills asked. "It is incredibly disappointing to see the MDOE and the Mills administration cave to that pressure. Our students deserve better than this. Our students deserve an inclusive community for all."

The "Freedom Holidays" video is the subject of the Republicans' first TV ad of the state's governor's race. The one-minute culture-war hit piece criticizes the Mills administration for using tax dollars to fund pro-LGBTQ lesson plans.

"Is this really what our kids should be learning in kindergarten instead of math, science and reading?" the narrator asks after a clip from "Freedom Holidays" is played. "Janet Mills' radical agenda is just wrong for our kids and for Maine."

The ad claims that the Mills administration used $2.8 million in tax dollars to create the video, but that was how much Mills has spent developing the online instructional video library known as MOOSE, or Maine Online Opportunities for Sustained Education.

MOOSE is not a state-mandated curriculum. No teacher or school district was required to use the Freedom Holidays lesson plan, and it is unclear how many did. MOOSE is made up of free, project-based lesson plans created by Maine teachers for optional use by other Maine teachers.

The online hub is undergoing a previously scheduled review by department staff, a DOE spokesman said. It is part of a plan to update the lesson plans created in the first year of the pandemic and to consider new material created by teachers for the coming school year.

Produced by a Virginia company, the "Radical Lessons" ad buy — the first of at least $4 million the Maine Republican Party plans to spend — cost about $94,000, campaign finance records show. This month, the Democratic Governors Association announced a $5 million TV campaign.

The large fundraising totals so far — Mills has raised $2.7 million to date and former Gov. Paul LePage has raised $1.3 million — suggest this showdown between an incumbent Democrat and a two-term Republican could become the most expensive governor's race in Maine history.

The "Radical Lessons" ad message appeals to the socially conservative Republican base that took center stage at the Republican Party Convention in Augusta this month. Republican delegates voted from the floor to add anti-LGBTQ language to the platform.

Maine Republicans have criticized Democrats for trying to distract Maine voters from pocketbook issues by focusing on emotional issues like abortion, but the Maine Republican ad is quick to remind voters of the culture wars playing out at school board meetings across the nation.

This story will be updated.