JAY — Several community members shared concerns at the Regional School Unit 73 board meeting May 22 following a presentation by Allen Sarvinas, Maine Parents’ Rights in Education  director.

Chairwoman Shari Ouellette of Jay said she had invited him to speak at the meeting at Spruce Mountain Middle School in Jay.

“We’re here to prioritize clarity, safety and outcomes for all families by grounding your leadership in the fundamental rights of parents,” Sarvinas said. “This begins with enforcing Title IX to protect the innocence, the essence of fairness and safety in girls sports and spaces.”

MPRE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, fully volunteer, nonpartisan, grassroots, advocacy group, Sarvinas said. “We believe families, not the government, are the primary stakeholders in their child’s education. We engage parents and stakeholders in-person and equip them with basic and professional training. Our mission is to input local advocacy programs and to produce meaningful changes.”

The strongest driver for academic success is the educational environment within the home, Sarvinas stated. Any district decision that disrupts the home automatically hinders and harms academic outcomes,” he said. “We need school boards to govern with parental rights lenses. Earlier, I said we were going to urge you to prioritize transparency, safety and outcomes for all families. Without transparency, there’s no parental engagement. Without engagement, the educational environment within a home declines.”

When schools undermine parents’ rights by withholding information, bypassing consent, or using a critical pedagogy instead of traditional, they sever trust and harm the educational environment within the
home, Sarvinas said. The new federal administration’s Department of Education has filed a lawsuit alleging that Maine schools are withholding information from parents, he noted.

For a little over a year, Rebecca Brooks with MPRE said she has watched as young girl athletes were afraid to walk off the field, afraid to tell their coach, afraid to confront facts and hobbies and teachers, because they do not want to be labeled a transphobic person. “They don’t want to be labeled a bigot,” she said. “They don’t want that
attention. They simply want to play.”

Politicians and activist groups are willing to steal opportunities from young girls, putting them in jeopardy out on the field or in locker rooms, Brooks said. “Picture yourself, whether you are a father or a mother, and your daughter goes out to that field thinking that she’s going to be playing with other females, and then that
ends up not being the case,” she stated. “How is she feeling when she goes to the locker room to change?”

Sarvinas urged the board to adopt the Maine Education Initiative resolution to enforce Title IX based
on current federal regulations and statutes, clarify local policies that conflict with those and restore parental trust by declaring inherent and fundamental parental rights will be protected.

Director Ava Moffett of Livermore Falls asked Sarvinas how his organization gets parents involved who typically don’t show interest in their children’s education.

“We found that a large group of parents that weren’t typically engaged were very interested in veterans coming back,” he responded. An assembly was held in another district with Legion members and parents attended who normally don’t attend school functions, he said.

Community response

Steven Gettle of Jay said transgender and other sexual orientation choices are choices that go against common sense. Those whose moral standards are in opposition are considered intolerant,” he noted. “Who is really being intolerant,” he asked.

Public schools can’t function without federal funding, higher taxes can’t be afforded locally to promote agendas, Gettle stated. Sixty million dollars are at stake in Maine over Title IX changes that have caused confusion, he noted. “It is time to do the right thing and take a stand against such foolishness,” he added.

Sarah Mosher of Livermore Falls, who co-owns The Flower Barn in Jay with her sister spoke of reactions after hanging an LGBTQ pride flag there. “Multiple people reached out to tell us how much it meant to them to see that flag out in front of our establishment,” she said. “That made our hearts full because it represents acceptance and love.”

An anonymous caller two weeks later told Mosher’s sister that he was no longer going to support the business because of the queer flag, she noted. “He was disgusted that we would hang such a flag across from an elementary school and we were speechless,” she said.

An elected Jay official posted on The Flower Barn Facebook page that they can’t continue to support the business when that flag is flown near a school for young children, Mosher stated. “The audacity of this person using blatant hate speech, the complete disrespect to not only our business, but for our members of the LGBTQ community that may have seen the homophobic comment,” she said. The Flower Barn is a place of acceptance and love; all people are accepted, she noted. Hate speech is completely unacceptable and bullying is not okay, whether that bully is a child or an adult, she added.

Joseph Bosse of Livermore Falls commented on The Flower Barn incident. “Let’s not downplay this,” he stated. “Let’s not hide behind euphemisms. It sends a message that LGBTQ students are less valued, less safe, less worthy of respect. It harms, it creates fear where there should be trust. It breeds shame where there should be pride, and it isolates students,” he noted.

“This is not political differences,” Bosse continued. “This is about decency and accountability and the fundamental right of every student to feel safe, affirmed in their school. We cannot meet this moment with silence. Silence in the face of hate is complicity.”

Bosse asked the board to publicly and unequivocally condemn hate speech, no matter who says it. He said he wanted the board to establish and enforce policies that hold board members and staff accountable for discriminatory behavior and implement comprehensive training to all district leaders on LGBTQ, inclusion and equity.

Former board member Danielle Brotherton of Jay spoke about the MPRE presentation, her concern that a group that has a well documented history of promoting fear, division and censorship was given a platform in the district. MPRE pushes narratives suggesting LGBTQ+ content in books is dangerous, when in fact, it’s often the only resource these students have, she noted. Removing them doesn’t protect kids, it isolates, she stated. Does the district want to be one where LGBTQ+ students  are told that their identities are controversial, or worse, unacceptable, she asked.

Ed Walsh of Jay said he had deep concerns, disappointment over the board’s decision to invite MPRE to speak. “Doing so you’re opening the door to something dangerous,” he stated. “This board has betrayed the trust of our community.”

“You’re putting educators in an impossible position,” Walsh continued. “Do they speak up to protect their students and risk their jobs or stay silent, violate their values and lose a piece of themselves?”

Mellette Pepin of Jay spoke of protecting kids’ privacy and girls sports. She asked the board to make a decision that prioritizes education and fairness to all students, ensuring Title IX compliance and protection of sex-based privacy.

Dr. Steven Bien of Jay said an elected school board should represent the community’s interests and voices as best it can, should not have its own political agenda, he said. “It should not curry influences behind our backs,” he added.

MPRE is listed on the hate map of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit group that documents anti-government extremist groups here in the United States, Robin Beck a former director from Livermore Falls said. This group talks about indoctrination; if the majority of this board agrees with this group then they are no better and they’re hurting the community and its children, she stated.

“Like other community members here, I have a strong interest in the health of our school system and its ability to provide education and a sense of safety and acceptance for all students,” Ellen Grunblatt, of Jay, said. “Students can be targeted for perceived and actual differences from what is arbitrarily considered the norm. Teachers, administrators and essentially, the school board itself are tasked with addressing the bullying that can stem from such targeting.”

The community counts on adults in the district to provide structure and safety for all students in a nondiscriminatory manner, Grunblatt said. MPRE promotes an ideology that includes the banning of some books in school libraries, whitewashing the teaching of American history, and lying about how schools handle health and sexuality issues, she noted. “It claims to empower parents as though parents are weak while what it actually does is bully administrators and school boards into taking actions that are antithetical to the educational concerns of our school and community,” she stated.

Grunblatt spoke of recent elections putting new members on the board. She hoped the board could put individual politics aside and “listen to each other with open minds, refrain from labeling and targeting, and most important engage in reasoned discussion of differences,” she said. “This is the path to policies that truly value students’ growth, development and independent exploration. Policies that support teachers and administrators to do their jobs equitably and well.”

When OUT Maine came to speak at prior board meetings, nobody got mad at them and asked them not to come, Director Roger Moulton of Livermore Falls noted.