Goldwater Institute attorneys were in federal appellate court in Boston last week defending a Maine mom’s constitutionally protected parental rights after public school officials purposefully concealed important information about her 13-year-old daughter’s health and wellbeing. The case is drawing national attention, and attorneys general in twelve states have weighed in to support parental rights and Goldwater’s argument.
Amber Lavigne was helping her daughter clean her room in preparation for a painting project one early December day in 2022 when she found a chest binder—an undergarment used to flatten breasts—in the room. The Newcastle mom was shocked when her daughter explained that it had been given to her by a social worker at Great Salt Bay Community School, who had been secretly advising her about “gender transitioning.” Making matters worse, the social worker told Amber’s daughter the school wasn’t going to inform her parents about any of it, and that the girl didn’t need to do so either.
Understandably outraged, Amber confronted both the principal of her daughter’s public school and the superintendent of the school district. But administrators only justified the counselor’s actions, claiming that no school policy had been broken by a school social worker giving a young girl a chest binder without ever informing the girl’s parents.
Earlier this year, the Goldwater Institute filed a federal lawsuit on Amber’s behalf against the Great Salt Bay Community School Board for violating her constitutionally protected parental rights—and last week, Goldwater attorneys argued the case in the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Specifically, Goldwater asked the court to hold that school officials violate parents’ constitutional rights when they keep secrets. This includes critical information like the counselor’s decision to give Amber’s daughter a chest binder, as well as school officials’ decision to refer to her with a different name and different pronouns.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly held, over the last century, that parents have a fundamental right to control and direct the education and upbringing of their children. But parents cannot meaningfully exercise this right if public schools hide vital information about decisions made and actions taken by school officials that directly affect the mental health and physical wellbeing of a child—which is exactly what the Great Salt Bay Community School did to Amber. The school board seems to think it knows what’s best for kids, better than their own parents, and is cutting parents out of the equation—in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
This case has attracted nationwide attention from both the liberty movement and states that honor the Constitution’s protection of parental rights. The Alliance Defending Freedom, the Child and Parental Rights Campaign, and the attorneys general in twelve states—South Carolina, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginia—all filed briefs urging the First Circuit to protect Amber’s constitutional rights.
As the First Circuit considers the case, Goldwater will continue fighting for the rights of parents like Amber Lavigne and standing up against public school district across the country that try and usurp the role of parents.
You can read more about the case here.
Adam Shelton is a Staff Attorney at the Goldwater Institute.
