A Maine school district is coming under fire from national conservative groups after a mother accused an employee of secretly encouraging her daughter to make a gender transition and giving the 13-year-old a chest binder.

Amber Lavigne says a social worker employed by the Great Salt Bay school district, about 30 miles south of Augusta, gave her daughter a chest binder after she expressed confusion about her gender. 

Chest binders are commonly used among biological females who identify as men to reduce the appearance of their breasts. The tight-fitting undergarments can lead to restricted breathing, back pain, fractures, and scarred breast tissue.

The case comes as states across the country consider legislation that would explicitly require schools to inform parents if a child identifies as transgender. Virginia’s house sent one such bill to the state senate. North Carolina, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri have similar bills pending in their respective legislatures.

In a letter earlier this month, Ms. Lavigne’s legal counsel at the Goldwater Institute accused the district of violating her constitutional rights as a parent. 

Under an interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s right to due process, the Supreme Court has held in a number of cases that parents have the right to “direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.”

In the letter, ​​Ms. Lavigne’s lawyer, Adam Shelton, asks for an investigation into all employees with knowledge of the social transition and a clarification of the school’s policy.

“What we’re asking for is really just a full actual investigation of what happened at the school,” Mr. Shelton told the Sun. “What went on? What policies allowed this to occur, and why is the school currently supporting the decision to give a chest binder to a 13-year-old girl?”

In December, a tearful Ms. Lavigne addressed the school board at a public meeting. She said she discovered the chest binder among her 13-year-old daughter’s possessions earlier that month, and she later came to understand that the binder was given to her by a district social worker who had been counseling her daughter.

When she contacted the school, Ms. Lavigne says she learned that her daughter was using a male name and male pronouns among her teachers and peers, what is known as “socially transitioning.” 

In a recent study by a left-leaning lab at Princeton, the majority of children — about 60 percent — who socially transitioned between ages 3 and 12 began medically transitioning with hormone-altering regimens within five years.

“This is unacceptable: a school employee secretly encouraged my daughter to change her gender and hide it from me,” Ms. Lavigne said in a statement. “The school never stopped trying to keep me in the dark at every turn, repeatedly stonewalling me when I tried to find out what was going on.”

The local paper of record, the Lincoln County, reported that the school has received at least two bomb threats since Ms. Lavigne’s remarks in December.

“Certain parties are spreading a grossly inaccurate and one-sided story to which the board cannot specifically respond, given our obligation to maintain the confidentiality of student and employee information, as required by Maine law,” the school board said in a January statement. “Unfortunately, that false narrative has directly given rise to the bomb threats that have disrupted our students’ education over the past several weeks.”

A prominent Finnish adolescent psychiatrist, Riittakerttu Kaltiala, cautioning against permanent gender reassignment surgery for minors, said most children will come to accept their biological sex during puberty. Dr. Kaltiala said as many “four out of five” children with gender dysphoria will grow out of it by adulthood.