The school board members and superintendent of a public school in Damariscotta blamed a Newcastle mom and the Maine Wire for threats emailed to the district last year — even as the board member leading the smear campaign admitted in an email thread that he had “no details and no idea if these threats were related” to the mom or the Maine Wire.
The Jan. 13, 2023 email, penned by then-board member Jesse Butler, came a few weeks after Amber Lavigne, the mother of two Great Salt Bay Community School students, expressed her frustration at a Dec. 2022 public school board meeting that a social worker at the school had secretly coached her daughter into a gender change.
At the meeting, Lavigne revealed that employees at the school had conspired — without her knowledge or consent — to social transition her 13-year-old daughters gender, using masculine pronouns for the girl and even providing her with breast binders to help her pretend she was a boy.
“A social worker at the school encouraged a student to keep a secret from her parents,” Lavigne said. “This is the very definition of child predatory sexual grooming. Predators work to gain a victims’ trust by driving a wedge between them and their parents.”
The Maine Wire subsequently reported on Lavigne’s allegations, which have now formed the basis for a federal lawsuit making its way through the federal appeals process.
In the wake of the media firestorm, the school board issued two defensive statements denying the substance of Lavigne’s allegations and the Maine Wire’s reporting.
In a December 2022 statement, the school board referred “rumors and allegations” that had been “published and republished on various social media platforms” relating to the secret gender transition.
At the time, the Maine Wire was the only media outlet reporting on the conduct of the AOS 93 personnel with regard to Lavigne’s daughter.
In the second letter that emerged from the school board’s January email discussion, the school board ratcheted up their rhetoric, accusing Lavigne and the Maine Wire of “spreading a grossly inaccurate and one-sided story.”
In the letter, the school board insisted that AOS 93 didn’t violate any laws or school policies during the secret gender counseling, even though the school’s policies at the time prohibited staff members from encouraging students to keep secrets.
The board said that a “false narrative has directly given rise to the bomb threats” that the district received from a ProtonMail.com anonymous email account.
Several months later the school would admit in court filings that one of its employees had, in fact, given breast binders to the 13-year-old without informing the mother.
[RELATED: Maine School Admits Giving 13yo Girl Chest Binder: Great Salt Bay Update…]
In other words, Lavigne’s allegations were accurate.
Given that the board members acknowledged via email having no evidence whatsoever connecting the bomb hoaxes to Lavigne or the Maine Wire, it appears the letter was a knowing attempt to falsely smear a critic of the school’s secretive gender counseling and the media outlet covering the controversy.
Investigators have yet to share more information about the two emailed bomb hoaxes, and have not affirmed the political motivated guesswork of a left-wing school board member.
Shortly after the Damariscotta controversy erupted, a similar controversy engulfed Target stores with multiple bomb threats sent via email threatening “cowards who turned their back on the LGBT community.”
“We won’t stand idly by as the far right continues to hunt us down,” the threatening email sent.
It later emerged that those emails were sent by an LGBT activist looking to create a false narrative of LGBT persecution.
The AOS 93 employee who provided the breast binders and sex-change counseling was 26-year-old social worker Sam Roy, who at the time was only conditionally licensed to practice social work.
He has since resigned his position at AOS 93.
Jesse Butler, the school board member who wrote the email calling for the board to post public responses falsely laying blame on Lavigne and the Maine Wire, has since resigned from the school board.
Lynsey Johnston, the AOS 93 Superintendent who was on the email thread and who approved of the false smear campaign, resigned from her post earlier this month.
With all three resignations, none of the outgoing school employees at the center of the secret sex-change controversy mentioned Lavigne’s lawsuit.
Although Lavigne’s lawsuit was most recently dismissed by a Maine district court judge, the Goldwater Institute, which is representing Lavigne, has filed a notice to appeal and signalled their eagerness to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Despite the school making egregious statements blaming me and others exposing their wrongdoing, I’m glad I’ve continued to stand up for my daughter,” Lavigne told the Maine Wire.
“I’m glad I’ve continued to work to expose the abuse my daughter endured,” she said. “Not only has this work made our family happier and healthier, but I do believe this work will help to save other children from being exposed to concepts that infiltrate young minds, sending them into a spiral of mental health struggles and alienation from the people who love and care the most about their health and well being.”
Here’s the full email:
Amidst controversies, a Maine mom’s concerns regarding school curriculum sparked debate and scrutiny from the school board. Her actions shed light on the importance of parental involvement in education and the need for transparent communication between schools and families. While navigating such contentious issues, understanding fundamental concepts like those offered in calculus help resources from https://essays.edubirdie.com/calculus-help can empower students to grasp complex subjects effectively. This incident underscores the broader dialogue about educational policy and community engagement, emphasizing the role of diverse perspectives in shaping educational standards and practices.
Humm, excuse me, this board needs to be fired! Plain and simple , screw the union . Their not helping the children ,their helping them selves fill their pockets!!! The parents should be setting policy’s and what their kids learn in schools, not government, it’s not their role! And never was intended to be .
You get what you vote for!!!!
Damariscotta / Newcastle is a nest of goody two shoes , hyphenated named , liberal virtue signalers , who worship at the alter of progressive woke – ism .
If it is “ traditional “ American common sense ..they dismiss it as MAGA extremism ….If it’s true it’s “ disinformation “. Read the local paper !
Ex CIA Operative John Brennan will speak in Newcastle this weekend about “ saving democracy “ from truth . $75 bucks to swoon in the presence of other true Biden believers . You can’t fix stupid .
Janet Mills needs to build a bunch of state paid for low income housing in Damariscotta and fill it with her new Americans .
There are plenty of dishes to be washed there , and then their classrooms can be disrupted with unsocialized, non English speaking delinquents , instead of chest binders for confused little girls .
Anyone trying to push this garbage should be prosecuted for child abuse and subverting parental rights, found guilty and thrown in prison for a good long time.
God Bless you Mrs Lavigne!
The picture on the main page pretty much says it all, guy with a twat knot.