Maine social worker gives 13-year-old a chest binder without parents’ consent

At a meeting with the school board, Amber Lavigne said a Central Lincoln County School System (CLCSS) social worker, Samuel Roy, gave the chest compression garment to her daughter and told her to keep it a secret from her parents, reported the Maine Wire on Friday.

Billboard Chris wrote, "A social worker for a school district in Maine gave a 13-year-old girl a chest binder, without parental consent. Other school officials socially transitioned her, using male pronouns, while conspiring to keep all of this a secret from her mom."

The alleged grooming incident took place at Great Salt Bay Community School in the small town of Damariscotta, where Lavigne said Roy and other school employees influenced the girl to transition to identifying as a boy, while using masculine pronouns to address her. The disgruntled mother said she knew that her daughter had been seeing a social worker at school, but the child had been reassigned to a new social worker in October without notifying her.

According to Lavigne, the chest binder — which are known to have serious medical side effects — was provided less than two weeks after her newly-13-year-old child met Roy.

"On Friday December 2, we discovered a chest binder in my barely 13-year-olds bedroom. Utilizing these devices can cause serious side-effects. After discussing this with our 13-year-old minor child, it was revealed to us that the binder was given to her by a district social worker employed at AOS Central Lincoln County Maine Schools without our permission," Lavigne can be heard saying to the board members on footage captured from the audience.

"Our child was originally assigned to another social worker employed at her school. When the new social worker took her into their supposed care in mid-October, we were never informed of this change, nor did the newly-assigned social worker reach out to us to introduce themselves," she continued.

Though she reported the ongoing incident when she found out about it to school administration, Lavigne said no actions were taken against Roy's employment there.

"In my initial meeting with administrators regarding this heinous act, they expressed grave concern for a social worker at our school providing a chest binder to our 13-year-old minor child without parental consent," Lavigne said. "To our understanding, this person was not fired, and will remain as-is at that AOS 93 Central Lincoln County School."

She then claimed that the school refused to provide notes from the social worker meetings with either Roy, or the previous social worker.

"A social worker at the school encouraged a student to keep a secret from her parents," the mom said. "This is the very definition of child predatory sexual grooming. Predators work to gain a victims' trust by driving a wedge between them and their parents."

Billboard Chris wrote, "None of the employees involved in this attempt to push a 13-year-old girl towards a childhood sex change will face any discipline."

The next speaker was Chris Coleman, a 4th grade teacher at Great Salt Bay Community School, another school in the district, according to Maine Wire.

"I'm here because members of our community, and perhaps some from afar, have decided that our transgender students do not deserve to feel safe at school," he said, characterizing Lavigne's grievances as bigoted

He went on to argue that the term "groomer" is offensive to fellow teachers.

Lavigne has since removed her daughter from the school system.

"I demand that all employees who had knowledge of this secret be immediately terminated from their positions at AOS and that our child’s records be released to us," she said. "Laws, policies, and parental trust were broken. No other parent should have to go through the trauma and distress this has caused my family."

She also told the publication that she's considering taking legal action against the school.