The town of Richmond was trying to decide if it should amend a school policy to prohibit transgender girls from competing in girls sports. Among public commenters, debate was just about evenly split: should they follow a state law that allows them to compete, or an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that doesn’t?

The school board in this small Sagadahoc County town ultimately voted 3-2 in mid-October to align its policies with the executive order, becoming at least the eighth Maine district to do so. They’ve gone against the advice of the law firm that provides counsel to most of the state’s districts. Some, including those in Augusta and Kennebunk, have discussed, but ultimately declined, to adopt those changes.

Ever since Trump signed the order shortly after retaking office, his administration has threatened to pull funding from schools that allow students assigned male at birth to compete on girls sports teams in an interpretation of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education. Maine’s governor challenged Trump on the issue and pledged to see him in court, which led to the the Justice Department filing a lawsuit against the state. That case is set to go to trial next April.

But districts like Richmond aren’t waiting for legal clarity, and the conservative Maine Policy Institute and the Maine Chapter of Parents’ Rights in Education are working directly with others that want to make that same leap. Their calculation is that state officials won’t challenge them.

That may not be true.

The state agency responsible for enforcing the Human Rights Act could already be doing so, its director acknowledged, although all complaints are confidential until their investigations are complete.

Daniel Farbman, an associate professor at Boston College Law School, said executive orders like this one are not laws themselves, just proposed interpretations of existing statute. A change to Title IX could be decided by the courts, but in the meantime, he said, state law still applies.

In the meantime, a group of Maine Republicans are asking voters to sign a ballot initiative that would change state law to align with the Trump administration’s order. Petitioners need to gather 68,000 signatures from registered voters to put the initiative on next year’s ballot and were out at polling locations on Tuesday to kick off that process.

STATE ENFORCEMENT

Maine has required schools to allow students to participate in extracurricular activities without discrimination on the basis of gender identity since 2021. The law is enforced by the Maine Human Rights Commission, a quasi-state agency that oversees complaints of discrimination on the basis of race, sex, gender identity and religion in areas like employment and education.

The commission enforces the law through investigating submitted complaints, and it’s unclear if the districts that have changed their Title IX policies have faced any. All submissions to the Human Rights Commission remain completely confidential until they’re resolved, Director Kit Thomson Crossman said in a recent interview. The agency has two years from the filing of a complaint to complete its investigation, and it often does take that full time.

“So if a complaint was filed today, I might not be able to tell you anything about it until October of 2027,” Thomson Crossman said.

An annual report released last week shows the commission is expecting to get more complaints this year because districts have adopted the federal government’s “as-yet untested interpretation of Title IX.”

The agency is capable of initiating investigations of its own, but those also remain confidential until resolved, and Thomson Crossman said because the agency’s small staff handles between 600 and 800 complaints annually, it’s rare.

But, this “would certainly be a situation where we would be considering that.” 

And even if the commission hasn’t initiated any complaints, it doesn’t mean that state laws don’t still apply.

“As far as we’re concerned, the Human Rights Act still requires schools to provide a safe education environment for all of their students, cisgender or transgender,” Thomson Crossman said. “Students are required to be able to play sports on the team that corresponds with their gender identity. They’re required to be able to use sex-segregated facilities that correspond with their gender identity.”

The law firm Drummond Woodsum, which provides legal counsel to the majority of Maine districts, has advised school boards to hold off on making changes to transgender student policies and keep following state law.

“Our advice has been, let’s see what the court does with this issue, and then if we need to revise policies to reflect new guidance from the Supreme Court, we can do that,” said attorney Isabel Eckman, who leads the firm’s School Law Group.

MAINE EDUCATION INITIATIVE

The Maine Education Initiative, a project run by the right-wing Maine Policy Institute and in partnership with the Maine chapter of Parents’ Rights in Education, has been leading the effort. The initiative provides districts with model policies, letters, workshops and other resources.

Jacob Posik, a spokesperson for the Maine Policy Institute, said the organization has worked with about a dozen districts, including all of those that have adopted the Title IX changes.

Allen Sarvinas, director of the parents’ rights chapter in Maine, told the Richmond school board — seizing on a comment Thomson Crossman made to the Bangor Daily News in August — that the Human Rights Commission did not plan to take independent action against any school district for changing its policies.

Posik said it’s proof the commission “does not intend to go after schools that adopt their own Title IX policies.”

Thomson Crossman said those seem like willful misinterpretations.

“Just because we, in August, had no plans to file a commission-initiated complaint against these school districts doesn’t mean that we don’t expect the school districts to still comply with the law,” they said. “And it doesn’t mean that we would never take action.”

Posik justified the approach by saying “federal law supersedes state law” and said that all Maine school districts “are operating in a legal gray area currently” until the dispute is resolved.

Farbman, from Boston College, said it’s true that a federal change to Title IX would supersede state law, as established by the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. But the executive order isn’t that: it does not preempt state law, he said, it’s just an interpretation not yet tested by the courts.

He said this has been a consequence of Trump’s flurry of executive orders: “placing things in question that might not otherwise be in question.” He pointed to an executive order about birthright citizenship, which he said straightforwardly violated the Constitution.

Farbman said the orders create confusion as people believe them to be federal law and attempt to comply either because they agree with the interpretation, or because they’re afraid of the consequences if they don’t, something he described as a kind of chilling effect.

Eckman, with Drummond Woodsum, offered a similar read of the situation: the president cannot change statute via executive order, she said, but it has created confusion for her clients.

“It’s a really unfortunate situation where it’s put public school districts in the crosshairs of a much larger kind of culture war,” she said. “I do think our public school clients are really wanting to figure out how to follow the law, by and large.”

In addition to the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Maine, she said there are two cases on the U.S. Supreme Court’s docket next year could provide official legal clarity on that question.

PLAYING OUT IN SMALL TOWNS

In Richmond, school board member Liana Knight invoked that advice in October, during one of two public workshops on the policy change.

“An executive order is not a law. It’s a suggestion for how a law should be interpreted,” she said. “I am struck that we have reached out to our lawyer, I think at least twice about this, and both times the lawyer has recommended that we just wait.”

Board Chair Amanda McDaniel told the Press Herald she respects the advice of attorneys but she isn’t personally concerned about the conflict with state law.

“We’re put in these positions to make decisions on behalf of the community,” she said. “We can take all advice into account and still move forward with how we feel things need to be done.”

School districts based in Hodgdon, Jay, Sullivan, Danforth, Turner, Baileyville, Wales have made the same calculation.

All of them represent small, conservative-leaning communities, most with only a few hundred students. It’s unlikely any have transgender student athletes competing on girls sports teams since the Justice Department’s lawsuit cites only three in the entire state. 

In Richmond, those who opposed the policy changes, including several students and teachers, described it as a solution without a problem, argued it unnecessarily exposed the district to litigation, and said the changes targeted a very small and vulnerable student population. Supporters, many who identified themselves as grandparents, invoked fairness in girls sports.

“If we push this forward now, it means we are taking initiative to take rights away from one of our most vulnerable populations,” Knight said. She was one of two votes against the policy change.

McDaniel said in the end it came down to the fact that the majority of the board members felt it was the right thing to do.

In Danforth-based MSAD 14, superintendent Margaret White resigned after the board voted unanimously to change its policies, the Bangor Daily News reported.

In Jay-based RSU 73, school board member Bryan Riley quit in July, citing health issues but also describing the board’s recent decision as “unnecessary and reckless.”

“Fishing for a legal opinion that matches one’s personal beliefs is a good way to waste taxpayer money and erode the trust that exists between faculty and the board,” Riley wrote in his resignation letter.

A version of this story first appeared in the Morning Update newsletter. Sign up here to receive the Morning Update and other BDN newsletters directly in your inbox.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

This is everything you need to know about today’s election. Mainers will decide on two referendums asking them to pass a voter ID law and a gun control proposal, along with many local issues and races for elected office.

Bangor voters have two local races on the ballot. Three City Council seats and two on the School Committee are up for grabs.

Anxiety is rising at Maine food pantries as SNAP benefits remain in limbo. The stress is compounded by the approaching holiday season and federal delays to home heating assistance.

The Bangor City Council censured Joe Leonard for a third time. The vote indicates that most of Leonard’s colleagues believe his outburst against white supremacists crossed a line.

A legendary Aroostook snowmobile gathering spot is for sale. Dean’s Motor Lodge has been a mainstay in Portage Lake for more than 80 years.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE

MAINE IN PICTURES

Maureen Hayden arranges coolers at the HOME, Inc. food pantry she manages in Orland on Monday. The nonprofit’s food programs have seen a slight increase in demand as SNAP funding lapses in November, but effects may become clearer as the month goes on. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN

FROM THE OPINION PAGES

LIFE IN MAINE

There’s a reason why your smoke detector might go off when the temperature drops

Maine hunters have less access to private land than they once did, Outdoors contributor V. Paul Reynolds writes.

The Bangor High School and Camden Hills High School of Rockport girls soccer team simply can’t avoid each other in the Class A North playoffs.

For the third consecutive season and seventh in 10 years, the two teams will square off for the Class A North championship and a berth in the state championship game at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Cameron Stadium in Bangor.

Each team has won three of the regional title matchups so far, with Bangor earning a 3-2 win a year ago and a 2-1 victory two years ago. Bangor went on to win the state championship last fall with a come-from-behind 3-1 win over Scarborough.

They also met in the semifinals in 2022 with Camden Hills notching a 3-1 win.

The teams split during the regular season this year with each winning at home. Bangor triumphed 2-1 on Sept. 20 and Camden Hills avenged the loss with a 3-0 victory on Oct. 16.

“It’s going to be a battle,” said Bangor coach Jay Kemble. “It’s going to be a competitive game between two outstanding teams that have quality players who know how to play the game and compete.”

Windjammers coach Meredith Messer shared a similar sentiment.

“It’s going to be a typical Bangor-Camden game,” Messer said. “Both teams are going to have to work hard. It’ll be fairly aggressive and physical.

“My hope is that there will be goals scored. Both of us like to score goals. We’re offensive-minded. It should be fun,” Messer said.

Neither team has been tested so far in the playoffs with the 14-1-1 Rams beating Mt. Blue of Farmington 7-0 and Brunswick 6-0. The 15-1 Camden Hills squad dispatched Messalonskee of Oakland 8-0 and Mt. Ararat of Topsham 6-0.

Camden Hills has scored 93 goals and given up 11 in its 16 games while Bangor has scored 84 and surrendered 8.

Both teams have dynamic, game-changing sophomores who are leading them in goals.

Camden Hills’ Molly Williams has scored 39 goals including eight in the playoffs while Bangor’s Georgie Stephenson has scored 34 goals.

Center midfielder Williams also has 16 assists and striker Stephenson has 10.

Class A North Player of the Year Clara Oldenburg from Bangor has 25 goals and 26 assists from her attacking midfield position. Messer said sophomore Eve Domareki is Camden Hills’ second-leading scorer with over 20 goals and her freshman sister, Liv, is the third-leading scorer.

Kemble said he has received important goals from Gabby Roy and Gabby Gordon in recent games.

Both teams are also solid in the back with Avery Clark, Sophia Chase and Jo Jo Clukey supplying the Rams with a lot of experience while Camden Hills’ back line features Lucy Ward and Maia Andrews.

Junior Emily Caulkins will start in goal for Bangor with freshman Eliza Gallant in goal for Camden Hills.

There is a lot of mutual respect between the two teams and coaches.

“Camden Hills has a centerpiece with Molly Williams. They have other kids in the middle that surround her. Defensively, they’re a lot like us. They play with four backs that rotate. They can get both (wingbacks) up-field and they have center backs who are strong and athletic. We are a lot alike in terms of skillset and style of play. Whoever makes the fewest errors is probably going to win,” said Kemble.

“Bangor is a really smart team and a great passing team,” said Messer. “They hold their space incredibly well and they are strong. When you look at them, they are physically stronger than most of the other teams. That gives them an advantage with speed and with holding the ball.

“And Georgie is a scorer and any time you have a team that has a legitimate scorer, that’s always tougher to stop. Kids who love to score find a way to score,” Messer added.