The left-wing Augusta School Board issued a formal admonishment against Conservative board member James Orr for alleged policy violations after he criticized the school district’s liberal transgender policies.
“We value your insights and your passion for sharing your opinions, but that passion must be channeled through the professional standards we all agreed to uphold. As Board members, we set the examples for the students and community for respectful discourse,” said School Board Chair Martha Witham in her letter to Orr.
Orr spoke with The Maine Wire about the letter and defended himself against the allegations made by Witham.
“The only thing that I’ve actually done is go and talk about the chair and her violations of the First Amendment in a public forum and making comment about the continued violations of no supporting Title IX,” said Orr.
The formal admonishment from the Augusta School Department was issued on February 27 and accused Orr of violating three areas of board policy: making disparaging remarks about board members and their opinions, criticizing school employees publicly, and failing to graciously support a decision made by the board.
The letter accuses Orr of failing to accept the liberal-majority board’s decision to reject federal Title IX antidiscrimination law and comply with the Maine Human Rights Act instead, which requires schools to allow transgender-identifying males into girls’ sports and spaces.
“I can’t in my right mind graciously accept anything when we’re violating Title IX, we’re lying to kids, we’re allowing the abuse to happen in our schools,” Orr said, speaking with The Maine Wire.
He told The Maine Wire that he believes the first violation stems from comments he made suggesting that the board chair has applied the rules in a biased and unobjective manner.
He clarified that he did not address the chair by name or personally, but only in her official capacity.
“I’ve never personally attacked Martha Witham,” he told The Maine Wire.
The third violation listed, that he criticized school employees publicly, he said stemmed from comments he delivered at the January 14 meeting of the school board.
At that meeting, he addressed concerns he had with a current employee of the school district, but he said that he believed he was operating within the policy because he didn’t name the employee.
The letter specified that the board discussed his alleged violations of the policy during a February 2 meeting, but Orr specified that it was an executive session, so it is not available for public review.
“They’re manipulating the rules,” said Orr.
Orr plans to address the admonishment at the upcoming board meeting on March 11.
The Maine Wire reached out to Witham for comments on the letter, but she did not respond.
The Augusta School Board has drawn headlines recently after political activist Nicholas Blanchard, who goes by the name CornPop online, filed a federal First Amendment lawsuit against the board, claiming that the school’s policies have been used to prevent him from speaking at their public meetings.
Blanchard is currently running for a seat on the board for 2026.
