A Maine mother is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her parental rights case, alleging school staff encouraged her child to socially identify as a different gender at school without her knowledge.
Amber Lavigne claims that in December 2022 she learned her 13-year-old daughter was given a chest binder by a school social worker and school staff had used a different name and pronouns for her child at school without informing her. Lavigne sued the school board in April 2023, arguing school officials violated her constitutional right to control and direct the upbringing and education of her child.
A federal judge dismissed the case in 2024, concluding Lavigne had failed to establish legal claims under which the school board could be held liable, according to The Associated Press.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that dismissal in July 2025. Lavigne’s attorneys at the Goldwater Institute have now petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.
CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT LETS STUDENTS CHANGE NAMES AND GENDER IDENTITY IN SECRET FROM PARENTS
“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 well-being of their children,” Goldwater Institute attorney Adam Shelton said.
In a press release issued Dec. 22, the legal group pointed to similar cases from Massachusetts and Florida also pending before the high court that involve disputes between parents and public schools over gender-related issues.
In their petition, Lavigne’s attorneys argue her case was dismissed by the 1st Circuit on the basis that she had “not pleaded facts sufficient to establish the existence of a permanent and well-settled policy or custom of withholding and concealing information” by the school district.
The petition asks the Supreme Court to clarify whether courts can dismiss parental-rights lawsuits based on probable “alternative explanations” before evidence is gathered and to decide whether parents have a constitutional right to be notified when public schools “affirmatively recognize and facilitate a child’s gender transition.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
“This situation is really about my parental rights being violated,” Lavigne said in the press release. “It’s about a social worker who had never even had a conversation with me encouraging my child to keep secrets from me.”
MAINE ‘MAMA BEAR’ FACING THREATS AS PARENTS BATTLE TO KEEP 8-YEAR-OLD-BOY OFF GIRLS’ BASKETBALL TEAM
Fox News Digital reached out to Great Salt Bay Community School and its governing board for comment.
Separately, the U.S. Department of Education in February launched Title IX investigations into Maine’s Department of Education and one school district amid allegations the state continued to allow biological males to compete in girls’ interscholastic athletics. The department later determined Maine was not in compliance with Title IX and announced it had begun the process of cutting off K-12 federal education funding to the state.
