Eric Lane, the parent of a Gorham Middle School student, vowed after meeting privately with the School Committee June 22 to continue his fight to remove gender identity posters from a classroom.
Eric Lane exits a closed-door meeting with Gorham’s School Committee June 22. Robert Lowell / American Journal
Lane objects to posters at the middle school that define gender terms, including cisgender, transgender and nonbinary, because of his Christian values, he said. He wants them taken down or presented with alongside opposing viewpoints. Superintendent Heather Perry denied his request in April, and he has appealed that decision to the School Committee.
His meeting with the School Committee last week was about a complaint he filed May 17 charging “First Amendment discrimination against Perry and Gorham schools.” He wants Perry to be fired.
“The meeting on 6/22 was an opportunity to present my case regarding my formal complaint about Heather Perry’s actions and treatment of me as well as the school’s unequal treatment of Christian viewpoints on gender theory, which are the longstanding, legitimate beliefs of most people and are supported by medicine and science,” he said this week in an email to the American Journal.
In last week’s closed-door meeting, a lawyer represented the School Committee while Lane attended alone. No details from the meeting were released.
The School Committee’s agenda item on June 22 did not mention Perry. It read, “Executive session with legal counsel to consider a complaint against an employee.”
He said he has also appealed Perry’s decision on the posters to the School Committee.
Lane has released emails Perry sent to staff members that he says show she was trying to thwart his right to complain about curriculum materials. In one, addressed to members of the staff reviewing Lane’s complaint about the posters, Perry wrote: “We need to use as many rungs in the ladder as possible to slow the process down to ensure this parent has to work a little on their end as well.”
“Heather Perry’s email stated her intention to discriminate against me and make it more difficult to exercise my legal rights and cause me stress,” Lane said in his complaint.
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