PORTLAND, Maine (AP) 鈥 A Maine woman is suing a school district whose counselor encouraged her teen's social gender transition, providing a chest binder and using a new name and pronouns, without consulting parents.
It鈥檚 the latest lawsuit to pit a parent鈥檚 right to supervise their children鈥檚 health and education against a minor鈥檚 right to privacy when confiding in a mental health professional. A similar was working its way through the courts this year. In Massachusetts, parents are suing a middle school for not telling them their two pre-teens were using different names and pronouns.
The federal lawsuit in Maine argues the mother of the 13-year-old student has a 鈥渞ight to control and direct the care, custody, education, upbringing and healthcare decisions of her children,鈥 and that Great Salt Bay Community School violated her constitutional right by keeping gender-affirming treatments from parents.
Civil rights advocates in other cases that schools must protect student privacy including their gender identity under federal law, and that counselors need to be able to keep conversations with students confidential if they want to maintain trust.
Administrators at the Maine school add that confidentiality requirements have prevented them from responding to 鈥渁 grossly inaccurate and one-sided story鈥 that began circulating on social media. The superintendent didn鈥檛 immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday.
Amber Lavigne, of Newcastle, Maine, filed the lawsuit after being unsatisfied with the school's response after she became concerned by the discovery of the chest binder in her child鈥檚 belongings in December. The compression clothing allows people to better conceal their breasts under clothing.
Lavigne's child told her that a school counselor provided the chest binder at the school and provided instruction on how to use it, according to the lawsuit. The mother also says the school was also calling her child by a different name and pronouns.
The Goldwater Institute, an Arizona-based conservative and libertarian think tank, is lead counsel on the lawsuit filed Tuesday. It argues the Maine mother's rights trump state statute allowing school counselors to keep information private.
Along with legislation banning surgical and pharmacological , Republicans have also pushed so-called parental rights legislation demanding transparency from schools. expands the rights of parents to know anything their children tell a teacher or school counselor.
鈥淚 deserve to know what鈥檚 happening to my child. The secrecy needs to stop,鈥 said Lavigne, who is now homeschooling her teenager, in a statement released by the institute.
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