{"id":1749839,"date":"2022-11-23T17:17:47","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T22:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1749839"},"modified":"2022-11-23T17:17:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T22:17:51","slug":"gender-identity-school-policy-leads-to-recall-elections-for-maine-school-board-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gender-identity-school-policy-leads-to-recall-elections-for-maine-school-board-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender Identity School Policy Leads To Recall Elections For Maine School Board Members"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgender-identity-school-policy-leads-to-recall-elections-for-maine-school-board-members%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1749839&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Two school board members in one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/maine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maine\u2019s<\/a> largest school districts are facing recall elections over their support for a controversial gender identity school policy.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 700 people signed a petition to remove board members Julia Lester and Sarah Otterson from the\u00a0Oxford Hills School District school board, which includes Paris, Maine.<\/p>\n<p>At an emergency meeting of the town of Paris\u2019 select board on Monday night, the board voted to put the issue to voters. The town of Paris will now decide whether the pair of school board members will lose their seats.<\/p>\n<p>Lester and Otterson support the Oxford Hills (MSAD 17)\u00a0district\u2019s new proposed gender identity <a href=\"https:\/\/themainewire.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ACAAA-POLICY.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">policy<\/a> that deals with student names and pronouns, parental notification, and bathroom and locker room usage.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, the Oxford Hills school board voted to provisionally approve\u00a0the gender identity policy. Twelve school board members including Lester and Otterson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themainewire.com\/2022\/10\/oxford-hills-school-approves-rules-to-keep-student-gender-identity-changes-secret-from-parents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">voted<\/a> to approve the policy, while seven members voted against the policy.<\/p>\n<p>The new rules would require school administrators to hide a child\u2019s new gender identity from their parents unless the student has given express approval for their parents to know.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cParent notification shall be contingent on student approval with the exception of school records accessed and disclosed under FERPA,\u201d the policy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themainewire.com\/2022\/10\/oxford-hills-school-approves-rules-to-keep-student-gender-identity-changes-secret-from-parents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>School officials are also directed to coach students on how to make sure their parents do not find out about their new identity. For example, officials must inform students that changing their name and gender on official school records could reveal the change to their parents since parents have access to those records.<\/p>\n<p>The policy also allows students to use whichever single-gender bathroom and locker room aligns with their gender identity.<\/p>\n<p>The policy also requires that students be addressed by \u201cthe name and pronoun they request\u201d by teachers, school staff, and other students.<\/p>\n<p>If the policy goes into effect, it will apply to all 3,400 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msad17.org\/page\/district-profile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">students<\/a> at all 10 schools in the Oxford Hills School District, which includes eight elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday evening, some Paris select board members expressed their concerns with the new policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want boys to be able to go into the girls room, and vice versa, and I have nothing against anybody who wants to live a certain lifestyle, I just don\u2019t care.\u00a0But I\u2019d be worried if my grandchild was there, my little granddaughter and boys could go into the bathroom,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/wgme.com\/news\/local\/paris-to-hold-recall-election-for-school-board-members-who-support-gender-identity-policy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> select board member Scott McElravy.<\/p>\n<p>The policy\u2019s critics cited the parental notification part of the policy as a major problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo people on the board was promoting policies that interfered with a parent\u2019s right to know. Us parents have had enough. That policy promoted secrecy,\u201d said Armand Norton, who organized the recall petition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cParents are the first line of defense if something happens to the kid, the parents are responsible for them, not the school,\u201d Norton said.<\/p>\n<p>There is currently some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmtw.com\/article\/paris-select-board-accepts-petition-to-recall-school-board-members-over-gender-id-proposal\/42043237#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">legal confusion<\/a> around whether the town of Paris can remove school board members since the school district extends beyond Paris.\u00a0Lester and Otterson represent Paris on the Oxford Hills School Board.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it is a law and it needs to be changed, maybe the town of South Paris is going to be the town to start changing things,\u201d Norton said.<\/p>\n<p>The recall election is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmtw.com\/article\/paris-select-board-accepts-petition-to-recall-school-board-members-over-gender-id-proposal\/42043237#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">expected<\/a> to be held in January or February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two school board members in one of Maine\u2019s largest school districts are facing recall elections over their support for a controversial gender identity school policy. Nearly 700 people signed a petition to remove board members Julia Lester and Sarah Otterson from the\u00a0Oxford Hills School District school board, which includes Paris, Maine. At an emergency meeting &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":1749842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1749839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1749839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1749842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1749839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1749839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1749839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}