School districts in Maine were directed to ignore President Donald Trump’s executive orders regarding protecting women’s sports from transgender athletes and prohibiting gender ideology from being taught in schools.
Emails from Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin, obtained by Defending Education and provided to Fox News, show that Makin issued a draft memo on January 30, directing schools to “avoid complying with” the president’s “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” executive order. Makin’s draft memo was sent to Maine Assistant Attorney General Sarah Forster.
The draft memo to Forster was sent days after Makin had emailed the superintendents in the state, informing them that, as Trump issued executive orders, there was “increasing misinformation, disinformation, and confusion impacting” schools in the state. Makin also wrote that the Maine DOE had “advised schools to adhere to the Maine Human Rights Act” and their “local school board policies related to nondiscrimination.”
“Dear Champions of Education,” Makin wrote in her email. “As executive orders continue to flow out of DC, there is increasing misinformation, disinformation, and confusion impacting our schools. Our team at Maine DOE is working hard to get clarification and, as factual information becomes available, we will be sending it along through these priority notices.”
Makin’s message continued: “Last week, we advised schools to adhere to the Maine Human Rights Act and your local school board policies related to nondiscrimination. We encourage you to continue to keep all people safe, and we reiterate the fact that, at present, neither our state law nor your local policies are diminished by the executive orders directing action at the federal level.”
In another email from January 31, Makin “drafted another memo to superintendents and school leaders addressing the executive order,” according to the outlet. Makin noted that the executive order did “not alter the obligations of schools under state law, including the Maine Human Rights Act.”
On February 21, days after Trump issued an executive order entitled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” Makin noted that Trump had “directly referenced the State of Maine.” Makin stated that Trump had declared “his plan to withhold Federal funding from Maine because of reports that” a transgender identifying athlete had been allowed to compete on a girls’ team, according to a press release from Defending Education.
As Breitbart News previously reported, while speaking to a crowd of Republican governors, Trump expressed that Maine would lose its federal funding if it kept defying his executive order and allowed biological boys to play in women’s sports.
“We’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever, until they clean that up,” Trump said at the time.
“As you all know, the Maine Human Rights Act protects all people, including transgender people, from discriminatory practices and harassment,” Makin said in her email. “This law was enacted by the Maine Legislature and Maine DOE has advised MPA and all schools to follow the laws of our state. There are many congressional barriers and checks and balances of government that should prevent the president from acting on his statement.”
In an email from February 19, the Maine Principals’ Association (MPA) revealed that they were “following” the Maine DOE’s “priority notice that was sent out on Jan. 21st, 2025, instructing all schools in Maine to follow the Maine Human Rights Act.”
Breitbart News’s Katherine Hamilton reported in March that the Trump administration’s Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights sent a letter to Makin, notifying her that the MDOE has policies and practices that violate Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities receiving federal funding.”
The OCR launched its investigation after a transgender-identifying boy claimed the victory in the Maine Class B championship for the Greely High School girls’ track and field team in February. The high school boy was allowed to perform on the girls’ team, despite Trump’s executive order barring males from participating on female sports teams.
Maine’s Democrat Governor Janet Mills has criticized Trump and the Department of Justice for their lawsuit against Maine continuing to allow transgender-identifying athletes to compete in women’s sports.
Mills has claimed that the Trump administration is trying to pressure the state to “ignore the Constitution and abandon the rule of law.”
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