Maine
Maine’s leaders cannot turn the other cheek on gun violence | Opinion
Julie Smith of Readfield is a single parent whose son was in the Principles of Economics class at Brown University during the Dec. 13 shooting that resulted in the deaths of two students.
When classrooms become crime scenes, leadership is no longer measured by intentions or press statements. It is measured by outcomes—and by whether the people responsible for public safety are trusted and empowered to act without hesitation.
On December 13, 2025, a gunman opened fire during a review session for a Principles of Economics class at Brown University. Two students were murdered. Others were wounded. The campus was locked down as parents across the country waited for news no family should ever have to receive.
Maine was not watching from a distance.
My son, a recent graduate of a rural Maine high school, is a freshman at Brown. He was in that Principles of Economics class. He was not in the targeted study group—but students who sat beside him all semester were. These were not abstract victims. They were classmates and friends. Young people who should have been worried about finals, not hiding in lockdown, texting parents to say they were alive.
Despite the fact that the Brown shooting directly affected Maine families, Gov. Janet Mills offered no meaningful public acknowledgment of the tragedy. No recognition that Maine parents were among those grieving, afraid, and desperate for reassurance. In moments like these, acknowledgment matters. Silence is not neutral. It signals whose fear is seen—and whose is ignored. The violence at Brown is a Maine issue: our children are there. Our families are there. The fear, grief, and trauma do not stop at state lines.
The attack and what followed the attack deserve recognition. Law enforcement responded quickly, professionally, and courageously. Campus police, city officers, state police, and federal agents worked together to secure the campus and prevent further loss of life. Officers acted decisively because they understood their mission—and because they knew they would be supported for carrying it out.
That kind of coordination does not happen by accident. It depends on clear authority, mutual trust, and leadership that understands a basic truth: in moments of crisis, law enforcement must be free to work together immediately, without second-guessing.
Even when officers do everything right, the damage does not end when a campus is secured. Students return to classrooms changed—hyper-alert, distracted, scanning exits instead of absorbing ideas. Parents carry a constant, low-level dread, flinching at late-night calls and unknown numbers. Gun violence in schools does not just injure bodies; it fractures trust, rewires behavior, and leaves psychological scars that no statement or reassurance can undo.
That reality makes silence—and policy choices that undermine law enforcement—impossible to ignore.
After the Lewiston massacre in 2023, Governor Mills promised lessons would be learned—that warning signs would be taken seriously, mental-health systems strengthened, and public-safety coordination improved. Those promises mattered because Maine had already paid an unbearable price.
Instead of providing unequivocal support for law enforcement, the governor has taken actions that signal hesitation. Her decision to allow LD 1971 to become law is the latest example. The law introduces technical requirements that complicate inter-agency cooperation by emphasizing legal boundaries and procedural caution. Even when cooperation is technically “allowed,” the message to officers is unmistakable: slow down, worry about liability, protect yourself first.
In emergencies, that hesitation can cost lives. Hesitation by law enforcement in Providence could have cost my son his life. We cannot allow hesitation to become the precedent for Maine policies.
In 2025 alone, hundreds of gun-related incidents have occurred on K–12 and college campuses nationwide. This is not theoretical. This is the environment in which our children are expected to learn—and the reality Maine families carry with them wherever their children go.
My son worked his entire academic life—without wealth or legacy—for the chance to pursue higher education, believing it would allow him to return to Maine rather than leave it behind. Now he is asking a question no 18-year-old should have to ask: why come home to a state whose leaders hesitate to fully stand behind the people responsible for keeping him alive?
Maine’s leaders must decide whose side they are on when crisis strikes: the officers who run toward danger, or the politics that ask them to slow down first.
Parents are done with hollow promises. Students deserve leaders who show their support not with words—but with action.
Make a gift in honor of the good that comes from BDN journalism in your hands, and help raise $60,000 this spring to support our reporting. Make a donation now.
Three more women have signed onto a federal lawsuit against the Maine Department of Corrections for allowing transgender prisoners to be housed in facilities that align with their gender identity.
First brought by Katie Mountain in April, the lawsuit now includes Jennifer Albert, Michaela Sargent and Danielle Foster, who say they live in fear at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham because of the department’s policy.
According to the lawsuit, the women have been sexually assaulted, threatened and repeatedly harassed by several transgender prisoners, including Andrea Balcer, who Mountain says caused “extreme physical and psychological distress.”
Balcer is serving a 40-year sentence for the murder of both parents in 2017.
Mountain, who was housed with Balcer when she began serving a 10-month sentence in January, alleges that while bunking together, Balcer subjected her to “graphic sexual stories, trapped her in a bathroom, pushed her against the wall, forcibly kissed her, and made repeated threats of rape and impregnation.”
Sargent describes waking up to Balcer stroking her hair and saying, “if you don’t wake up it’s because I smothered you with a pillow.” She also alleges that Balcer once grabbed her shirt and demanded, “show me your boobs.”
Attorney Cynthia Dill, who represents the plaintiffs, said in a press release that when the women reported the abuse or refused to affirm Balcer’s gender identity, they were met with retaliation by being placed in segregation, being denied hygiene supplies and medication and losing eligibility for early release.
In their lawsuit, the women argue that the policy mandates gender affirmation with “deliberate indifference to the safety, privacy and civil rights of women incarcerated in the State of Maine.” They say “gender identity” first made its way into Maine laws that govern corrections in 2021.
The plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction against the gender identity law and related state correctional policies along with damages.
Jill O’Brien, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Corrections, said in a statement that the department takes residents’ safety concerns very seriously.
“Anytime a resident makes a report of physical or sexual violence or harassment to staff, the Department investigates,” O’Brien said. “If the conduct that occurred rises to the level of a crime, it is referred to the District Attorney for prosecution. If it violates the Department’s disciplinary policy, the residents involved are disciplined.”
O’Brien added that information about specific residents is confidential and information about specific residents is confidential.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
KENNEBUNK (WGME) — A national wildlife refuge in Maine has a new center for its visitors.
At a ribbon cutting in Kennebunk Wednesday, Maine leaders celebrated the grand opening of the Rachel Carson Center for People and Nature.
The new center offers exhibits and programs for the nearly 300,000 visitors that stop by the refuge each year.
The center’s grand opening coincides with the late author Rachel Carson’s birthday.
Carson’s research helped to spur conservation efforts and environmental policy changes in the 1960s, something Congresswoman Chellie Pingree says she’s now fighting for decades later.
“We’ve actually come 180 degrees, we think science is wrong and we shouldn’t believe in it and climate change doesn’t exist,” Pingree said. “We’re battling an anti-science battle, and we have to continue to take it on, but one of the best ways to do that is to bring people right here in touch with nature.”
The refuge in total spans more than 6,000 acres across several cities and towns in southern Maine.
The typical home in Maine’s largest city costs nearly $300,000 more than it would have a decade ago, a new study revealed.
Median home prices in Portland surged from $263,000 to $558,000 over the past 10 years, according to an analysis of nationwide real estate data from Construction Coverage. That’s a 112% spike in the last decade, earning the city the 85th spot among all small U.S. cities ranked by housing price growth.
Meanwhile, the median Maine home cost about $193,000 in 2016 and $407,000 in 2026. That 111% growth makes Maine the state with the third highest real estate price jump over the last decade.
The report reveals that Maine’s housing has not only become unaffordable to most people in the state, but that Mainers are feeling the pressure of rising home prices more than almost every other state while wages have struggled to keep up. Nationwide, home values jumped more than 81% in the last decade.
The report includes data from Zillow, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
While median housing prices across the state rose 110% over the last 10 years, median household income rose by 53%. It shows that many Mainers aren’t able to afford the rising costs.
The Maine Housing Outlook Report, released in January by MaineHousing, noted housing prices outpacing wages as an “ongoing concern.”
“In 2015, the median income in Maine exceeded by 21% what was needed to afford the median home price in the state. In other words, an average earner could afford an average home,” the report stated. “This is no longer the case.”
Only Idaho and New Hampshire have seen housing prices grow more than Maine, according to the analysis.
Idaho saw the highest jump, as median property values rose 137% to surpass $473,000 this year when the same home there would’ve cost just under $200,000 in 2016.
In New Hampshire, median home prices rose more than $270,000 over the last 10 years to $507,000 this year — a 114% spike.
Meanwhile, median household income in Idaho and New Hampshire climbed by 64% and 50%, respectively, during the same period.
-
News4 minutes agoFormer senior CIA officer took home gold bars and millions in cash, FBI says
-
Los Angeles, Ca2 hours agoLoved ones search for 80-year-old woman missing in Westlake for nearly a week
-
Detroit, MI2 hours agoDetroit PWHL team names Michigan native Josh Sciba head coach
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoWorld Cup dining guide near Levi’s Stadium and in San Francisco
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoNorth Texas doughnut shops named among best in U.S.
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoMiami’s Jai Lucas Tackles Year Two With A New Roster and New Goal
-
Boston, MA3 hours agoA look inside Joan Bennett Kennedy’s Back Bay condo, listed for $2.6m
-
Denver, CO3 hours agoDenver Fashion Week Responds To Community Demand With Second Model Audition Date – 303 Magazine
