A conservative legal group is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of a Maine mother who says her 13‑year‑old daughter was “secretly” encouraged by a school social worker to begin gender‑transitioning without her knowledge.
Attorneys with the Arizona‑based Goldwater Institute filed a petition asking the high court to take up the lawsuit originally brought by Amber Lavigne. Lavigne alleges that a guidance counselor at Great Salt Bay Community School advised her daughter to use a different name and pronouns at school and to wear a chest binder — an undergarment typically used to flatten the chest — all without notifying her as the child’s parent. Lavigne’s 2023 lawsuit was dismissed by a U.S. District Court judge in Maine, and the decision was upheld by the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston in July.
In their petition, Goldwater’s attorneys argue the case raises pressing constitutional questions about parental rights and gender‑identity policies in public schools. They say the Supreme Court should provide “uniform guidance” on how schools nationwide must handle situations where a child’s gender identity diverges from biological sex and parents are not informed. The petition asserts that parents have a fundamental constitutional right to be notified when schools “affirmatively recognize and facilitate a child’s gender transition.”
Goldwater Institute attorney Adam Shelton said that by withholding key information from Lavigne, the school district violated her parental rights under the U.S. Constitution and failed to respect her role in decisions affecting her daughter’s well‑being. “We are asking the Supreme Court to step in and make it clear that parents … have a right to know when public school officials make important decisions affecting the mental health and physical wellbeing of their children,” Shelton said.
Lavigne has described the situation as a violation of her role as a parent. She said the social worker had never spoken to her about the advice given to her child and that being left out of such a “life altering decision” made no sense to her as a mother.
The case comes amid wider national debates over transgender issues in schools, including athletic participation. Maine has been a focal point in that dispute, pitting Democratic Gov. Janet Mills against former President Donald Trump, who has threatened to withhold federal funding from states that do not comply with his “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order. Mills has refused to comply.
Maine is also facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Education Department’s civil rights division, which argues the state’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete on girls’ sports teams violates Title IX, a 1972 law prohibiting discrimination in federally funded education programs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has frozen some federal funding over the issue, and the state is challenging that action in court.
At the same time, conservative groups in Maine are working to qualify a ballot question for the 2026 election that would ban transgender students from participating in girls’ sports teams. The Supreme Court petition from the Goldwater Institute adds another legal front to ongoing battles over gender identity, parental rights, and educational policy.
