Amber Lavigne had no idea a school social worker was secretly advising her 13-year-old about “gender transitioning.” Even worse, the public school’s leaders supported the plan to keep Amber in the dark. The Goldwater Institute is now asking the United States Supreme Court to protect Amber’s constitutional rights and prevent public schools from hiding critical information about children from parents.
In early December 2022, Amber was helping clean her child’s bedroom when she discovered a chest binder—an undergarment used to flatten breasts so the wearer appears more masculine. She learned that her child received the binder from a social worker at Great Salt Bay Community School, a public school in Maine. The counselor said he would keep it secret from the child’s mom, and that the child didn’t have to tell her, either. The Goldwater Institute took up Amber’s case, asserting that the school was violating her constitutional rights as a parent.
“This situation is really about my parental rights being violated. It’s about a social worker who had never even had a conversation with me encouraging my child to keep secrets from me and telling my child that he wasn’t going to tell me about it so my child could keep it from me too,” said Amber Lavigne. “I have three kids who need an education and I would love to be able to send them to a public school, but in the current environment I’m not comfortable with that. Our goal as parents is to raise amazing human beings who contribute to society, who care about other human beings, and to be left out of such a life altering decision just doesn’t make sense.”
“Not only does it not make sense, by keeping this information from Amber, the Great Salt Bay Community School violated the U.S. Constitution,” Goldwater Institute attorney Adam Shelton said. “We are asking the Supreme Court to step in and make it clear that parents like Amber have a right to know when public school officials make important decisions affecting the mental health and physical wellbeing of their children.”
The Supreme Court has repeatedly held 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 their children.
That’s exactly what happened here.
After learning about the chest binder, Amber confronted both the school principal and the superintendent of the school district about the secrecy, but they only justified the social worker’s actions. They told Amber the social worker hadn’t violated any school policy by giving her 13-year-old a chest binder without informing her about it.
Unfortunately, the First Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Amber’s claim, refusing to even address the constitutional violations. But the Supreme Court has held that at early stages of litigation—like in Amber’s case—the plaintiff’s allegations only have to be plausible because the case hasn’t gotten to a stage where a plaintiff like Amber has access to the information necessary to prove her claim.
Amber isn’t alone. There are multiple cases now pending before the Supreme Court asking the Justices to take up similar questions. This includes a case out of Massachusetts where a public school went beyond a parent’s explicit wishes and recognized a child as transgender without telling the parents. A similar case that began in Florida is also pending before the Court. This is a pressing issue that cries out for the Supreme Court’s involvement to ensure parents’ rights are protected.
The Supreme Court will hopefully protect parental rights by making it easier for people to hold their local public schools accountable and declaring that the Constitution’s protections include the right of parents to know what is happening in their child’s public school, including when a school takes steps affirm their child’s transgender status.
As the Supreme Court considers the case, the Goldwater Institute will continue to fight for the rights of parents like Amber and stand up against public schools across the country that try and usurp the role of parents.
You can read our petition to the Supreme Court here, and read more about the case here.
