On Thursday, June 6, Regional School Unit 40’s regular school board meeting agenda includes the possible deletion of Policy ACAAA, Transgender and Gender Expansive Student Policy.

Policy ACAAA proscribes procedures for district personnel in the event that a student “asserts a gender identity or expression different from the gender assigned at birth.” These procedures include addressing students by their preferred name and pronouns, permitting them to use the locker rooms and restrooms that most closely match their gender identity, and developing a support plan for the student.

The policy was adopted in 2018 and remained relatively unknown until it was updated in January 2023. 

At that time, the policy was amended to add, “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).”

Over multiple school board meetings in late 2022 and early 2023, School Board members and dozens of members of the public voiced concerns on either side of parents’ rights to be informed versus protecting students who may not feel safe disclosing their gender identity to their families. 

Student safety was also an area of concern, with some worrying about protecting transgender and gender expansive students while others expressed opinions about the validity of these identities. 

Since the updated policy was adopted in January 2023 in a vote of 11 for and 4 against, four of the members who voted “yes” have been replaced. In May, the Policy Committee took up discussion of Policy ACAAA, voting to send it to the full School Board to vote on deleting the policy. 

The action raised alarm bells through the community and word quickly spread through social media. Each side rallied supporters and people from all over the Midcoast attended the May 16 School Board meeting. 

Approximately 200 people packed the Union Elementary School gymnasium for that meeting, which took on the appearance of a rally. A few people held signs stating “Hate Has No Home Here” and a woman walked around passing out stickers bearing a flag associated with transgender people. The full School Board was present save Waldoboro’s Emily Trask-Eaton due to a death in her family.

After convening the meeting, the School Board entered an executive session to meet with the district’s attorneys at Drummond Woodsum. When the Board returned, they quickly voted to extend the meeting until it was finished and to extend public comment beyond 90 minutes. The Board heard from Auditor Christian Smith that all accounting appeared in good order. 

Following a standard warning about speakers’ language, Board Chair Danny Jackson began to call from a list of over 50 people who signed up to speak. 

Heated emotional appeals were made both for and against the policy. Several transgender and gender expensive people, from elementary school aged students to senior citizens, spoke in support of keeping the policy.  

Barbara Hirsch, Counsel for the Maine Human Rights Commission, said that removing the policy does not remove the District’s obligations under law.

Hirsh said “the Maine Human Rights Act has made it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, including gender identity and gender expression, since 2005. The rights were reaffirmed in Doe vs. RSU26, which made clear and settled law that individuals may use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity.”

School administrators and staff also generally favored the policy. Miller Elementary Principal Julia Levensaler said, “even at the elementary school, I have needed to use this policy, and I was very glad I didn’t have to try to make it up on my own.”

“Deleting this policy doesn’t change our legal requirements, but it what it does do is send the message to our LGBTQ students and staff that RSU40 does not value or include them,” Levensaler said. 

Amelia Winters, teacher at Medomak Middle School, said that as a nonbinary individual: “this policy makes me feel proud of my work place and safe within it. It’s part of the reason why I chose district; it gives me hope and comfort knowing my students are allowed to feel safe and confident at school in a way that wasn’t available to me.

“Regardless of my feelings, this allows trans children at MMS feel safe. trans children are a higher risk of suicide. Supportive family, adults, and/or community reduce this risk; this policy makes us part of this protective bubble.”

Ann Johnson, of Union, asked the School Board “Do you have logical or legal base for removing protections? If people feel in this group feel it’s important, I would like to know why you feel that way.”

Only Board Member Joseph Henry, of Friendship, responded.

“As far as removing protections, that’s not the intent of anybody here,” he said. “Is it well crafted, is it what it should be, is everybody protected by the policy? There are already laws in place, as mentioned, there’s anti-bullying, everybody should be protected. I’m not here to remove or keep anything: I'm listening.” 

Tory Verrill, of Warren, said, “if the Board is concerned the boys of our district will use this policy to sexually assault girls at school, we have a bigger problem than the gender expansive policy.”

Hadassah Humes, of Warren, said that female high school students are “being assaulted and victimized” because the policy permits students to use the restrooms and locker rooms which match their gender identity. 

Rick Butler, of Warren, said: “My son in 2019 was a student at MVHS, and this policy was in place. He came up to me and asked ‘Dad, I’m concerned. I don’t feel comfortable using the bathrooms. There are transgender people going into our male bathroom.’ I said okay, well, what you should do is collect signatures on a petition and go to staff. He did, had more than 100 signatures, and administrators refused to accept that petition.” 

Meredith Barry, of Friendship, said her objection to the policy was that it kept secrets between a student and the school.

“As a parent, a parent has a right to know what’s going on with my child,” said Barry. 

After two hours of public comment, the School Board took turns expressing their views. 

Superintendent Steve Nolan said: “To clarify, the policy helps make sure that staff are following the law. The concern is that deleting the policy will contribute to confusion and make people think that they do not need to follow the law.”

Nichole Thompson, of Union, and Noah Botley and Jeanette Wheeler, of Washington, declined to make any statement. 

Naomi Aho, of Warren, said, “this policy made one group have special rights,” by giving them something that other groups do not have.  

Joshua Blackman, of Warren, said a majority of taxpayers do not support the policy. Board Chair Danny Jackson later said he did not think that was true and pointed out that of 50 speakers that evening, 80% had spoken in favor of keeping the policy.

Blackman also expressed concern that having the policy enacted was a tacit endorsement of what is written within the policy and asked how the school was keeping the girls safe when the policy allows boys in restrooms.

Blackman described himself as a member of Generation Z and said, “Generation Z is in a mental health crisis related to gender identity.” He quoted the Christian Bible.

Henry, of Friendship, said he was concerned about parents being excluded from an important aspect of their children’s lives. He wants to build some thing that respects both parents and students. 

“I have no hate in my heart,” said Henry. “Just give us some time.” 

Student representative Finian Kelly said the School Board’s mission is to inspire students. He asked how removing the policy lived up to the standards set for the board. 

Kelly worries his own rights as a disabled person may now be in jeopardy. Kelly said because he is diabetic, he is able to go to the nurse’s office and get a juice box when he needs to, and this does not discriminate against students who do not get to have a juice box.

Julie Wheeler, of Waldoboro, said she was concerned about the rights of other children. She did not want any female children to be traumatized by seeing male genitalia in the restroom. She reiterated several times that she is not anti-gay.

Matthew Speno, of Union, said he is proud of the policy and the work the Board did on it.

Speno said, “taking ideological vote against what the school district should stand for sends a message to the world that RSU 40 could give a flying F about transgender students.” 

Speno said RSU 40 is shedding employees left and right and potential employees would not miss a night like this, further eroding the number of applicants. 

The School Board voted 8 to 7 to delete, with the weighted formula reflecting 505 to 422 against. Aho, Blackman, Botley, Henry, Randy Kassa of Warren, Taylor, Wheeler, and Melvin Williams of Waldoboro voting to delete. Abernathy, Erik Amundsen of Union, Danny Jackson of Waldoboro, Sandra O’Farrell of Waldoboro, Brooke Simmons of Friendship, Speno, and Julie Swindler of Warren voted to preserve the policy. 

The policy will face a second, final vote Thursday, June 6. 

After nearly three hours of discussion, normal board business continued in an abbreviated fashion with several reports skipped.

The meeting can be watched on YouTube.

The next RSU 40 School Board meeting is 7 p.m. Thursday, June 6 at the Union Elementary 1070 Heald Hwy, Union. 

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