A prominent critic of policies allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls' sports is suing the Kearsarge Regional School District, accusing officials of violating her First Amendment rights during a school board meeting in August.

Beth Scaer of Nashua is arguing her free speech was stifled when School Board Chair Alison Mastin barred her from continuing to provide public comment after Scaer referred to a transgender girl in attendance as a “tall boy.”

The interaction occurred during a contentious meeting on August 29, in which the school board ultimately voted to allow transgender students to play on teams consistent with their gender identity, in accordance with federal law at the time but in violation of a state law that had recently passed.

Scaer, an outspoken activist on the issue, traveled to the New London meeting to publicly oppose that decision, joining over a dozen people in providing public comment.

Several seconds into her speech, Scaer described the student, who wished to play on the girls’ soccer team, as a “tall boy.” Mastin cut her off, later citing the board’s “no derogatory comments” policy, according to meeting minutes.

Though the district does not have an explicit “no derogatory comments” policy, it prohibits “defamatory speech.” State law also allows districts to “reasonably restrict” comments that personally identify students.

In an interview on Friday, Scaer appeared to have been previously unfamiliar with that law. She acknowledged she could have made the same point without using the student’s name, but she said that describing the height of the student was necessary in order to make her point.

“There’s no reason to use [the student’s] name, and I certainly in the future would not use the name because that's not necessary,” Scaer said. “I mean, everyone knew who we were talking about. But I would still continue to like to be able to refer to a tall boy as a tall boy.”

Scaer said she had wished to contrast the Kearsarge student’s height to that of the only two other transgender girls in the state who have publicly come forward as wishing to play on girls’ sports teams. Those two students jointly filed a lawsuit last August.

School boards across the state routinely bar public speakers from describing specific students during meetings. Scaer noted, however, that other speakers who had identified the student without misgendering her or describing her physical appearance had been allowed to continue to speak.

The student herself spoke during the public comment period.

Mastin and district superintendent John Fortney declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in February that altered guidance surrounding Title IX, the district no longer allows transgender girls to play on girls’ sports teams, Mastin confirmed in a brief interview on Friday.

“We believe we made the right decision in the first place to follow Title IX, and Trump’s changed that, so we’re going to continue to follow Title IX,” Mastin said, referring to the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in school sports.

A lawsuit challenging that executive order has been filed in federal court in New Hampshire and remains pending.

Scaer said she does not have female children who currently play school sports, but she has gotten “reports from other mothers” about the issue.

She said she waited nearly nine months after the meeting to file her lawsuit because she only recently reviewed the meeting minutes, which she said had been amended after she requested that they include full descriptions of the comments made by those who spoke.

“I realized that this was public record now and I could call them on it,” she said.

Scaer and her husband, Stephen Scaer, sued the city of Nashua last year for refusing to let the couple fly a “Detransitioner Awareness Flag” on a community flagpole. Previously, the city also removed a “Save Women’s Sports” flag that the couple had raised, according to their lawsuit.

Earlier this year, a federal court judge denied the couple’s request for a preliminary injunction, a decision that they have appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

 

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.