Maine Mom Asks Supreme Court to Review Case After School Gave 13-Year-Old Chest Binder
A Maine mom has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court after she says her child’s school secretly helped her then-13-year-old daughter socially transition and kept it from her. The case centers on what the mother describes as a fundamental clash over parental rights and school authority.
The tension in the case is raw: Amber Lavigne discovered a chest binder in her daughter’s room that she did not provide, and she says it was given to the child by a school social worker. Lavigne alleges the worker agreed not to tell her about it and that school staff had been using a different name and pronouns for her child at school.
Lavigne sued the Great Salt Bay Community School Board in federal court, alleging school officials violated her constitutional right to direct the upbringing and education of her children by concealing all of this information. A judge dismissed her complaint for lack of a viable legal claim, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld that dismissal.
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Now, backed by the Goldwater Institute, Lavigne has asked the Supreme Court to take the case, arguing that parents must be informed of major decisions affecting their child’s mental and physical well-being. “We are asking the Supreme Court to step in and make it clear that parents… have a right to know…” said a Goldwater attorney.
The matter matters because courts rarely intervene in local school policies, and a Supreme Court decision could reshape parental rights law nationwide. It’s also part of a broader national debate over how much authority schools should have in gender identity matters.
What happens next is that the Supreme Court must decide whether to grant review, meaning agreeing to hear the case, likely in the coming months. If they take it up, oral arguments and a decision could follow in the next Term.
As of now, the Supreme Court has not publicly announced it will hear the case.
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