A former guidance counselor at Scarborough High School has filed a lawsuit against the school district, arguing he was retaliated against for raising concerns about mandated reporting on a possible sexual assault involving students.

The lawsuit comes after the state agency that handles employment discrimination complaints concluded the counselor had reasonable grounds to believe the school district retaliated against him.

According to the complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, William Messer was on a probationary one-year contract at the high school that ran from September 2022 to August 2023. He received positive feedback from school administrators and never faced any disciplinary action.

In the spring of 2023, the complaint says, Messer learned about an incident between students, where one student reported they had been sexually assaulted by another. Messer raised concerns to an assistant principal that the school had not met its obligations to report the incident to police, the Department of Health and Human Services and the student’s parents.

Three days later, the district informed him that it was declining to renew his contract.

Messer filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission a few months later. In October 2025, the commission found he had a basis to believe the school had discriminated against him; in February, the agency informed him that its efforts to resolve the dispute were unsuccessful, and he could proceed with litigation.

According to a report from the commission, the district told investigators that Messer “was good with students but had some performance issues related to his conduct around other staff and his mishandling of school procedure” and said that its decision to not renew his contract was not impacted by the reporting incident.

The commission found that Messer was spoken to by administrators about a couple of incidents, but that he was responsive to feedback, and that he only received positive assessments during reviews and was given no indication that the school had ongoing concerns about his job performance. The investigator said the timing of his contract non-renewal, in relation to the report, was strong evidence that it was a factor.

Scarborough’s superintendent did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Messer is asking to be reinstated to his job or receive lost future pay, in addition to back pay, and is asking that the district be required to notify all employees of the verdict and state that it will not tolerate retaliation in the future.

“Public employers, including school districts, cannot punish employees for opposing what they reasonably believe is unlawful conduct,” Messer’s attorney, Chad Hansen, said Wednesday. “Such retaliation violates the First Amendment and state and federal laws.”