Augusta School Board Member James Orr addressed significant issues facing the school district during Wednesday’s meeting, including LGBT books for children, a class on Ramadan, and a high rate of absentee students.
He also tried to address a formal admonishment he received based in part on his opposition to the department’s transgender policies before he was cut off.
“I will end with this. Matthew 18:6, Jesus says, ‘Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea,'” said Orr, concluding his statements after he was prevented from speaking for more than ten minutes.
Board Chair Martha Witham sent Orr a letter on February 27, formally admonishing him on three points, including his failure to “graciously support” the Augusta School Department Board’s decision to allow transgender-identifying males to compete in girls’ sports and share girls’ restrooms and locker rooms.
He previously spoke to The Maine Wire about that letter and said he would be addressing it at Wednesday’s meeting, though he was unable to do so as he intended because he began his statements by addressing issues pertinent to the school district as a whole before discussing his personal admonishment.
While speaking to The Maine Wire on Thursday, Orr explained that he believes the issues he is addressing should take precedence over him personally.
“Message over messenger. I’m not the important part; it’s the things that I’m saying,” he told The Maine Wire.
During the allotted 30-minute time slot for board members to comment on non-agenda items, Orr offered to allow other members to speak before him, but no one spoke up.
School board member Susan Parks interrupted him nearly immediately after he started speaking. She objected that, because Orr brought notes, including the letter of admonishment, the board would need to vote to allow him to read from those documents.
After a brief consultation, the school’s attorney advised that the board allow Orr to read from his papers without requiring a school board vote.
Orr began his comments by raising concerns about inappropriate books found in the district’s elementary schools, including one book about a young boy wearing a dress and getting acceptance from his peers, and another that depicts a gay romance between a knight and a prince.
The Maine Wire previously covered the latter book, Prince and Knight, after a 5-year-old kindergartener brought the book home from the Pittston-Randolph Consolidated School library last month.
Orr told The Maine Wire that he saw the books himeslf in the school district’s possession.
Second, he addressed a class from one of Augusta’s schools that taught students about Ramadan, an Islamic religious season of fasting, comparable to the Christian Lent.
During the meeting, he said that he is not upset that there was a class teaching students about Ramadan, but that he hopes this means the school can also teach about Christian religious holidays.
“I’m not upset about there being a class in there about Ramadan, but I sure do hope that, come April, in that classroom in that school that some students are able to get up, and they’re also able to go and give a class about another Holiday that is in April,” said Orr.
The final issue he raised was Augusta’s skyrocketting rate of absenteeism rate.
“The absenteeism rate in Augusta schools is 23 percent,” Orr revealed during the meeting.
He claimed that, according to State policy, schools are required to address the issue with their own policies if the absenteeism rate hits 10 percent, yet the board has failed to take action.
He suggested that the problem could be driven by families of “New Mainers” taking month-long vacations back to their home countries during the school year.
After addressing the broader issuse facing the school disrict, Orr attempted to respond to the board’s admonishment. Not long into his statements on the topic, as he was reading excerpts from the letter, Witham cut him off, telling Orr that his 10-minutes of speaking were up.
Orr argued against that, pointing out that the segment for board comments was 30 minutes, rather than ten minutes. After another consultation with the attorney, the board determined that, while the overall segment lasted 30 minutes, an individual member could speak for no more than ten.
Orr was allowed to end with a final statement, which he used to quote the biblical admonishment against harming children.
Speaking to The Maine Wire, Orr said that he was unaware he was only able to speak for ten minutes, and that he plans to address the admonishment at the board’s April 8 meeting, unless there are more pressing issues facing the district on which he has to use his time.
