The Maine Board of Licensure in Social Work held a disciplinary hearing Friday for a conditionally licensed public school social worker who last December provided a 13-year-old girl with a breast binder without her parents’ consent or knowledge.
The social worker, 26-year-old Samuel Roy, was employed by the Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta when he gave the breast binder to the daughter of Newcastle mom Amber Lavigne.
Roy gave the 13-year-old girl the binder to help her flatten the appearance of her breasts and present as a biological male. The binder was part of a social gender change he had counseled the young girl on, counseling that included other school officials using male pronouns for the girl and a different name.
Lavigne said in a December school board meeting that she didn’t know about the binder until she found it in her daughter’s bedroom. She said she subsequently learned it was provided by the Roy, whom she had never met, and who had met with her daughter just a few times.
Following what she considered an insufficient response by the school to her complaint, Lavigne filed a complaint against Roy with the State licensing board. She also filed a complaint against Roy’s supervising social worker Jessica Berk, also employed by GSBCS.
Less than one week after Lavigne filed her complaints against Roy and Berk, Lavigne learned that someone had filed an anonymous complaint against her with Maine’s child welfare agency, the Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS).
The anonymous complaint alleged Lavigne had physically and emotionally abused her daughter.
The complaint was the only time Lavigne had ever been investigated by OCFS.
The probe took several months to resolve, but concluded without a finding.
Lavigne has said she believes the child welfare complaint was retaliation for her complaining about how the school treated her daughter.
GSBCS officials have refused to say whether they filed the complaint against Lavigne.
The social work licensure board has also refused to identify the individual who filed the complaint.
Roy, accompanied Friday morning by two unidentified women for the hearing, did not talk during the public portion of the hearing.
When the meeting took up the complaint filed against him, the Board used an executive session to force Lavigne and the Maine Wire to exit the hearing room.
Committee staff later allowed Roy to exit out a back door rather than face questions from media.
The meeting was the first time Lavigne had ever seen Roy in person.
Details from the committee’s proceedings were not immediately available to the public.
Lavigne later learned through her attorneys that the board recommended no discipline for Roy; however, the board did decide to issue a guidance letter to Roy about working with minors and their parents.
The letter should eventually become a public record.
“I knew his license wouldn’t be revoked. But some of my faith in our system has been restored knowing that the board is holding him accountable, to some degree, with a letter of guidance,” Lavigne said in a statement to the Maine Wire.
“This sends a message to schools that giving students breast binders and penis tuckers-and keeping secrets from parents will come with repercussion,” she said
“Do I think this solves the problems we are seeing in our public schools? No. These schools are broken. But it’s showing parents that government entities, such as the board providing these licenses, see us. It’s a step in the right direction,” she said
Lavigne has since removed her daughter from GSBCS.
She has also filed a lawsuit in district court alleging that the school’s actions violated her constitutional rights to direct the health and education of her child.
Roy is among the GSBCS employees named in an official capacity in that suit.
Drummond Woodsum, a liberal Portland-based law firm that represents many of Maine’s government-run schools, is representing officials from GSBCS.
Lavigne is being represented by attorneys from the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute, a conservative and libertarian public policy think tank.
Roy did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
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