US

Maine Father Sues School District Over Public Records Request That Ended With The Police Being Called

[YouTube/Screenshot/Public — User: News Center Maine]

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Reagan Reese Contributor
Font Size:
  • Shawn McBreairty, a Maine father and parental rights activist, filed a lawsuit against a school district that allegedly limited his time with documents he requested through a public records request, calling the police when he refused to agree. 
  • McBreairty filed requests to access superintendent training materials and communications regarding the school’s Gay Straight Alliance club, a national LGBTQ student-led group, and was allegedly only given timed in-person access to the training materials.
  • “It’s a total lack of transparency which is really the issue. We’re already paying taxes and I don’t live in Hermon but I’m a state and federal taxpayer so I’m still paying to indoctrinate those kids,” McBreairty told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A Maine father and parental rights activist is suing a school district that allegedly withheld documents apart from a public records request, calling the police shortly after he showed up to review the materials.

Shawn McBreairty filed a lawsuit on Friday against Hermon School District after administration allegedly failed to give him complete access to superintendent training materials and communications regarding the school’s Gay Straight Alliance club (GSA), a national student-led LGBTQ group that teaches how capitalism leads to oppression of the LGBTQ community. Superintendent Micah Grant originally granted McBrearity an opportunity to review only the training materials in-person but then allegedly cut the time short and called the police on McBrearity when he refused to agree to the new terms. (RELATED: Mom Demands Investigation Into School That Hid Her Daughter’s Gender Transition, Provided Chest Binders)

“They called 911,” McBreairty told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s a total lack of transparency which is really the issue. We’re already paying taxes and I don’t live in Hermon but I’m a state and federal taxpayer so I’m still paying to indoctrinate those kids.”

From Nov. 2022 to Jan. 2023, McBreairty filed three Maine Freedom of Access Act requests (FOAA) including one for superintendent training materials provided through Drummond Woodsum, a law firm, which allegedly included presentations such as “Avoiding Disaster In Court,” the lawsuit stated. McBreairty also requested information over a two month period pertaining to Hermon School Board member Chris McLaughlin, the owner of Inspired Consulting Group LLC., a group which allegedly provides LGBTQ training to school districts across the state.

McBreairty also requested a two-month period of communications between Hermon librarians Kara Schwartz and Brittney McAllister, in relation to the school’s GSA club, the lawsuit stated. The librarians allegedly helped create a LGBTQ library display within the high school featuring 40 transgender books, funded by the Maine Education Association (MEA), a state-wide teachers union.

In response to his requests, McBreairty received McClaughlin’s emails but was required to pay for the librarians’ communications before having a timed chance to review them, which under Maine law is required before charging the individual who requested the documents, the lawsuit alleged. As for the superintendent training materials, Grant allegedly invited McBreairty to the school district to take notes on the documents, citing copyright concerns when McBreairty requested to take photos or be given his own copy.

Grant allegedly called the police to escort McBreairty out of the school after he asked him to leave less than an hour into reviewing the documents, stating that his allotted time was up, the lawsuit alleged. McBreairty exited the school premises once law enforcement showed up but alleged that he was never given a time limit on his access to the documents.

“I went to the superintendent’s office and we had a discussion about copyright,” McBreairty told the DCNF. “He said he would give me the binder and at that point I’m like ‘okay, I’ll just take the binder and write as much stuff down as I can.’ He sat four feet behind me, directly over my shoulder, watching me like I was on prison work detail. I guarantee you he doesn’t do that with other citizens who asked for anything from FOAA requests. He doesn’t want people to know what’s in there because there’s some juicy stuff in there.”

In May 2022, the school district filed a lawsuit against McBreairty for the alleged “bullying and harassing behavior” towards a school employee. The pending lawsuit came after McBreairty allegedly accused the faculty advisor to the school’s GSA club of “grooming children.”

In January, the district came under fire after a coalition of parents created a database of 80 sexually explicit books found within the school libraries. The parents demanded the district remove the books and implement a policy to review books that are flagged by the school community as inappropriate.

“These public K-12 Maine schools and national schools their number one goal is to talk to kids about Critical Race Theory, hyper sexualization, social emotional learning, which is all really leftist pedagogy of the day,” McBreairty told the DCNF. “Meanwhile, Math Science, English scores have never been lower.”

Hermon School District and Grant did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.