The Lewiston Sun Journal news coverage of a school policy fight in the Oxford Hills School District left some readers scratching their heads Thursday night over reporter Nicole Carter’s blithe accusations of intolerance.
Earlier in the week, parents in the school district successfully stalled a proposed policy that would have required school officials to keep information about student mental health secret from parents.
If passed, the policy would have effectively allowed school officials to coach students into gender transitions without the knowledge or consent of parents.
[RELATED: Oxford Hills School Board Temporarily Blocks Gender Policy…]
Parent opposition to the policy led to several acrimonious school board meetings and a recall petition for two of the school board members pushing the policy.
Earlier this week, the school board voted unanimously to indefinitely postpone adoption of the policy.
Opponents of the policy saw it as an infringement on parental rights and argued that, if a student is suffering from gender dysphoria or gender confusion, that fact should not be concealed from parents by school officials anymore than a school would conceal that a student was suffering from depression or anorexia.
For Nicole Carter of the Advertiser Democrat, which is republished in the Lewiston Sun Journal, opposing secret gender transitions for kids smacks of intolerance.
Carter reports on two board members who resigned following the fight, one of which was facing a likely recall by Paris voters: “With the resignation of two representatives from Oxford and Paris, intolerance appears to be gaining a foothold against Maine School Administrative District 17’s board of directors in the wake of developing a student gender identity policy.”
Carter then accuses Armand Norton, the Paris resident who spearheaded the recall petition, of posting “anti-gay” memes on Facebook, but she does not present any examples.
The one Norton Facebook post she included in the report was of a Revolutionary War soldier tagged with a message to stand up for children.
A review of Carter’s Facebook page, however, found several posts disparaging Republicans and conservatives, including a meme claiming that conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas opposes interracial marriage.
Thomas, a black man, is married to a white woman.
On LinkedIn, Carter’s posts show more than slight bias regarding the proposed Oxford Hills policy.
