The Board of Directors of Maine’s Regional School Unit 40 (RSU 40) on Thursday evening voted to delete a transgender student policy that allowed boys to use girls’ locker rooms and restrooms, and directs staff to assist transgender or “gender expansive” students with gender transitions.
RSU 40 covers the municipalities of Friendship, Union, Waldoboro, Warren and Washington.
The RSU 40 “Transgender and Gender Expansive Students” policy — coded “ACAAA” — is nearly identical to other transgender student policies adopted by school districts throughout the state, and is based on language from a sample policy approved by the Maine School Management Association.
Its stated purpose is to “foster a learning environment that is safe and free from discrimination, harassment and bullying,” and codifies how school administrators and staff should handle a student who requests to go by a different name or pronouns, or wishes to use a restroom or locker room that matches their “gender identity.”
A point of major contention within RSU 40’s ACAAA policy was a January 2023 amendment which added language directing school administrators to shield parents from becoming aware of their children’s gender transition plan.
“In the case of a student who has not yet informed their parent(s)/guardian(s), the
administrator should first discuss parent/guardian involvement with the student to
avoid inadvertently putting the student at risk by contacting their parent(s)/guardian(s). The student will be notified by the administrator prior to contacting their parent(s)/guardian(s),” the policy states.
The Board met at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Union Elementary School, and the meeting lasted over six hours due to a large number of district residents present for the public comment portion of the meeting.
Prior to public comment, the Board voted in favor of extending the time allotted for the public to speak for over 30 minutes, and approved extending the meeting until finished.
Members of the public who argued in favor of the RSU 40 Board deleting the transgender student policy said that the district’s schools should get back to teaching the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, and have no business hiding student information from parents.
Several speakers also criticized gender ideology more generally, pointing to the lack of a requirement in the ACAAA policy of a medical diagnosis for school staff to assist in gender transitions for students.
“It’s an identity, it’s how you feel, it’s not reality,” one speaker said.
Republican State Rep. Katrina Smith of Palermo was present and spoke at the meeting, applauding the Board’s “steadfastness” in tackling the issue.
“Women have spent hundreds of years trying to find a voice and be respected for who they are,” Rep. Smith said. “This policy undermines the strides that women have made and the triumphs of teaching our young girls their inherent worth.”
Kristin Sims, a middle school science teacher in the district, said that the deletion of the policy would not change RSU 40’s obligation to follow state anti-discrimination laws, and would only “send a clear regressive and chilling message.”
“The assertion that only binary male and female exists is simply not science,” the middle school science teacher stated. “All people are entitled to their beliefs, but not to impose beliefs on others.”
“Public schools are secular and government and educational institutions,” Sims said. “As such, policy decisions ought to be based on evidence, research and objective reality.”
“Removing [the policy] does not remove the protection of the law, removing it is merely a gesture, removing it sends a clear regressive and chilling message,” she concluded.
One Waldoboro resident, who said she is the parent of a transgender student, told the Board that she, as well as other voters, “will remember how you vote tonight on Tuesday” — the state’s primary election day.
Several of those gathered in the elementary school gymnasium applauded the parent’s remarks and waved small transgender flags.
Just over six hours into the Thursday meeting, and after public comment from more than 100 people, the Board held a final roll call vote on a motion to delete the ACAAA policy.
The vote was an 8-8 tie, resulting in the motion passing due to how the votes of Board members are weighted based on the size of the municipalities they represent.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="28438 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=28438">7 Comments
Finally, I hope other school districts follow suit. The insanity has to stop.
It will stop when we elect good God fearing people to run our schools and institutions, and not support this insane agenda, putting these ideological ideas into our kids heads. Keep your kids OFF SOCIAL MEDIA AND OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS
This will get addressed again I am sure. In the meantime, that board needs to revisit their policy on school bullying to address the toxic masculinity that leads to harassment and physical harm to “different” students. We always had the choice; a) protect the victims, or b) punish the perpetrators of harassment. The board just rejected the first. Now, the perpetrators of harassment are usually the male students who are unsure of their own sexual identity but who “prove they are not gay” by projecting any homosexual feelings they have onto their victim. Every man needs to acknowledge that they have a feminine side, just as every woman needs to acknowledge their masculine side. Let go of repression, failure to do so is what leads to suicides and self-harm. The RSU 3 board strategy should be to identify students harassing and hazing others, and send them the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity training.
Congrats to the brave RSU 40 school board for choosing to focus on education rather than on leftist indoctrination.
I would suggest that purported science teacher, Kristin Sims, check her degree at the door and download the well researched Parent Resource Guide by going to http://www.GenderResourceGuide.com
I’ve heard of studies that prove that trans children have an equally high rate of suicides and ongoing issues years later. If this is true it’s well concealed in today’s society and should be published for parents and children to know about before traveling down a road that can’t be retreated from.
The entire movement is deceptive with all the colors, prancers and pride. Joe Camel was a piker. In reality children have identity issues that need treatment far different than what they’re getting.
Where is the outcry from the usual suspects about these pervs targeting children with their false advertising?
In any other given situation, when an adult informs a child to “keep the secret” from a parent, it is seen as a power play. If a person has a true identity issue, they will not want to keep it from their parent, and together with their parent(s) they will work towards a solution. Nothing of this sort would have to be hidden, or kept private from the parents if it was okay.