A mother’s lawsuit accusing Lincoln County school officials of hiding her child’s gender expression from her was dismissed Friday by a federal judge.

Amber Lavigne sued superintendent Lynsey Johnston and the Great Salt Bay Community School Board in April, alleging they violated her due process rights as a parent by not telling her that her child was using a chest binder at school and using different pronouns than the ones the child was assigned at birth.

But none of Lavigne’s allegations amounted to actual legal claims that are eligible for relief, according to now-retired Chief U.S. District Judge Jon Levy.

“It is understandable that a parent, such as Lavigne, might expect school officials to keep her informed about how her child is navigating matters related to gender identity at school,” Levy wrote in the ruling. “Her Complaint, however, fails to plead facts which would, if proven, establish municipal liability … based on an unwritten custom, ratification by a final policymaker, or failure to train.”

Lavigne lives in Newcastle with her three children, including a 13-year-old who was enrolled at the school in Damariscotta until December 2022, when Lavigne decided to homeschool her child, according to her complaint.

That’s when Lavigne said she found a chest binder in her child’s room, which her child said they had received from a social worker at the school. School staff never told Lavigne they were giving her child a chest binder, she said. It was also around this time that she said she learned her child was using a different name and set of pronouns at school.

Lavigne met with Johnston and the school principal days later and later addressed the school board at their Dec. 14, 2022, meeting.

School officials have consistently maintained that their policies were in accordance with state laws that provide equal access to education for all students, regardless of gender identity, and a right to privacy regardless of age.

The school said it reiterated this in written statements several times in the face of anonymous threats of violence against school staff in the months that followed. The school had to be shut down twice. The district’s attorney, Susan Weidner, said Monday they hope Levy’s decision puts “misinformation” surrounding the case to rest. 

“We are pleased that, after the School District’s first opportunity to respond to the Plaintiff’s lawsuit in court, the Court determined that there was no claim here,” Weidner said in a written statement.

Johnston and other school system staff were dismissed as defendants in November 2023. The board was dismissed, along with the entire case, on Friday.

Lavigne was represented by attorneys from the Goldwater Institute, an Arizona-based advocacy organization that has taken legal action on similar cases around the country.

A spokesperson for the firm, Joe Seyton, said Monday the attorneys are evaluating their next steps. Seyton did not say specifically whether that might entail an appeal.

“While we are disappointed in the court’s ruling, we remain undeterred in our defense of the rights of parents and children against the efforts of school officials to undermine fundamental constitutional principles,” Seyton wrote in an email.

Lawsuits against public schools and other municipal entities can only proceed to trial in U.S. District Court if they show clearly unconstitutional policies, or a failure to train employees on policies that are legal.

Lavigne repeatedly tried to argue the school had an unconstitutional policy “of intentionally withholding and concealing certain information from parents,” the judge wrote, but he didn’t believe that was the case after reviewing all of the evidence, including the school’s actual policies and guidelines for transgender students.

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