Amber Lavigne (shown above) told AFN that she made the discovery in her daughter's room.
The daughter was questioning her gender, and the school’s offer of “help” was to assist the teenager in denying her gender and begin presenting as a male.
“So, well, one afternoon we were cleaning my daughter's bedroom, and we were prepping it for her to paint the following day with her stepfather, and we found what we now know is a breast binder. And so, I asked her ‘where did that come from?’ She eventually shared with me that it came from a social worker at the school. I struggled for a minute,” Lavigne said.
Lavigne’s story is not unique in Maine.
In March, the U.S. Department of Education announced an investigation into the Maine Department of Education for alleged violations of the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA).
Parents have rights under FERPA until a student begins college.
The Trump administration found that “dozens” of Maine school districts had policies that allowed schools to create “gender plans” supporting a student’s preferred gender identity. The districts then claimed those plans are not education records subject to FERPA and are therefore not available for parents.
Lavigne said her 15-year-old daughter is not "transitioned" right now, but that she was confused at the time. She said it was a Friday when they discovered the binder.
She emailed the principal right away and spoke with her that Saturday morning.
“The principal, in hindsight I think, was kind of trying to buy herself some time. I had emailed her, and her response, when I said I found this chest binder in my daughter's room, she responded as if I found a three-ring binder, which is something that you normally would find in a school setting, and so I responded back, and I corrected her and said no, it was a chest binder.”
She was told school officials were going to meet with the social worker the following Tuesday.
“And so I said well, ‘I'd like a follow-up meeting on Wednesday. I'm not sending my daughter to school until this gets resolved.’”
Lavigne and met with the district superintendent. The school principal did not attend.
“The superintendent essentially said, ‘as far as we can tell, nothing negative happened here. We're not taking any kind of corrective action.’ She even cited that the breast binders they chose to provide to my child were, less restricting than the plastic-based ones, which was a little bit insulting."
She said her daughter was wearing the binders upwards of 12 hours a day, which the mother described as “incredibly infuriating.” She added her daughter ended up with a skin infection at one point throughout the process.
“So I pulled her from school. I homeschooled her and ended up speaking in front of the school board and filing complaints on both of the social workers' licenses at the time. I was retaliated against, and they called Child Protective Services at that point.”
In the end, Lavigne said her daughter is ok. She is “thriving” now, and she understands a person's sex is not something that can be changed.
Not over till it's over
But it's not over yet.
"We filed the lawsuit early 2023. We went to court here in Maine, federal court in November of that year. I believe it was April of 2024, the judge granted the school's motion to dismiss.”
Now Lavigne is waiting on an appeals court ruling from the First District in Boston after appearing there in October of last year.
“They can either choose to agree with the Maine judge and grant the motion to dismiss, or we will then move to discovery. If they grant the motion to dismiss, we'll appeal to the Supreme Court."
