One beloved Danforth teacher’s refusal to accept East Grand School’s radical transgender policy, which authorized staff to conceal gender transitions from parents, led to a unanimous school board vote to repeal the policy on Monday and the recognition of only two sexes.
At the start of the school year, all teachers at the school are required to sign their employment contracts, and thereby agree to abide by school policies.
Many teachers were completely unaware of Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) 14’s radical “Transgender and Gender Expansive Students.”
One health teacher, Tammi Matula, asked East Grand School Principal Mike Muir questions about the school’s policy surrounding transgender students, and he sent her the radical document. She had never seen the policy before.
Another Danforth teacher told The Maine Wire that the rest of the faculty was just as ignorant of the radical policy as Matula.
“The teachers had never seen the trans policy and were unaware of it,” the teacher said.
Instead of signing the contract, and thereby agreeing to abide by the radical policy, Matula tendered her resignation in an inspiring letter, taking a principled stand based on her Christian faith.
“This policy would require me to lie to students about how God created
them, violating my faith and my duty to love and care for my students. It would
force me to facilitate students of one sex sharing bathrooms and locker rooms
with members of the opposite sex,” said Matula.
“And it would require me to ignore biological reality in my classes and on the playing field. As a Christian and a teacher who cares about my students, I cannot do this,” she added.
Matula’s resignation letter drew attention to the transgender policy, which is similar to policies advocated in other school districts by the law firm Drummond Woodsum and other trans activist groups. Under the policy, teachers are explicitly instructed to conceal gender transitions from parents and must affirm a student’s self-identified gender. Students are also permitted to use the bathrooms corresponding to their self-selected gender rather than their biological sex.
“School staff shall comply with the student’s wishes regarding disclosure of their transgender status to others, including but not limited to parents or guardians, students, volunteers or other school staff, unless the student has explicitly authorized the disclosure or unless legally required to do so,” said the policy.
Many parents were outraged to learn of the policy through Matula’s resignation letter. According to Heidi Sampson, executive director at Maine Education Initiative, even some school board members were shocked and outraged to learn of the policy.
Matula’s letter brought a far larger crowd than usual to Monday’s MSAD 14 school board meeting. The meeting was held in the gymnasium to accommodate the significantly larger crowd, which, according to Sampson, included approximately 150 people.
The meeting was not live-streamed or recorded, but Sampson told The Maine Wire that the school board chair read Matula’s resignation letter aloud despite prior objections from Muir and received a standing ovation from those in attendance.
During the public testimony, according to Sampson, parents expressed their support for Matula and their disgust over the transgender policy, and not one person stood up in support of the radical policy.
Following the impassioned public comments, the board voted unanimously to repeal the radical transgender policy.
They even went further, voting unanimously to adopt a resolution to amend all district policies to ensure recognition of only two sexes, ensure that sports and private spaces are divided by biological sex rather than self-identification, and accept the interpretation of federal Title IX anti-discrimination law established by President Donald Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports.”
The board also voted unanimously to reject Matula’s resignation, according to Sampson.
Following Monday’s meeting, the school’s superintendent, Margaret White, resigned, reportedly because she opposed the board’s decision to acknowledge biological reality.
Disclosure: Maine Education Initiative is a project of the Maine Policy Institute, of which The Maine Wire is also a project.
