A former Mount Desert Island high schooler who sued the school’s principal after he allegedly failed to intervene during a 2024 assault on school property has added a sex-based discrimination claim to the federal lawsuit.
The new Title IX claim, which was not part of the plaintiff’s initial May complaint, is the latest chapter in a federal legal battle that stems from an alleged attack at Mount Desert Island High School on Oct. 3, 2024. In July, the suit, originally filed against the principal alone, was amended to include the school department and superintendent Michael Zboray as defendants, according to court records.
The civil complaint alleges that Principal Matthew Haney watched a student assault a classmate and instructed a bystander not to intervene.
The Bangor Daily News is not identifying either of the former students involved because both were minors at the time of the incident and one is an alleged victim of assault.
“The plaintiff has now tried three times to state a claim, and despite her best efforts, she has failed each time,” said Allan Bradley, an attorney for the defendants, referring to the twice modified suit. “We are confident that no matter how many times the plaintiff tries to amend her complaint and no matter how many claims she tries to assert, her complaint will ultimately be dismissed, because neither Principal Matt Haney nor the school department did anything wrong here.”
The latest complaint, which was filed July 17 and requests a jury trial, supplements the single federal civil rights claim filed in May that accused the principal of violating the student’s constitutional rights by not intervening during the altercation.
The newest allegations say that Haney was aware prior to the assault that the alleged attacker was “targeting [the] plaintiff and that the conflict involved hostility related to sex, gender, gender identity and perceived views about sex or gender identity,” the lawsuit says.
The school receives federal financial aid and is subject to Title IX, according to the suit.
Before the alleged assault, the complainant reported to school officials — including Haney and a counselor who failed to schedule a mediation session between the students prior to the incident — that the alleged attacker was calling the plaintiff “transphobic” online and making offensive gestures in public, according to court records.
The suit alleges that the accused attacker had transferred from Ellsworth High School, where other students had filed harassment complaints against her.
“[The] defendants’ failure to respond to [the] plaintiff’s pre-assault reports made [the] plaintiff more vulnerable to further harassment and violence in the school environment,” according to the updated complaint.
A court filing from the defendants’ attorney rejected the Title IX claim, saying “none of these actions are gendered insults or instances of gendered stereotyping.”
The alleged assault began on the school bus when the accused student, who the lawsuit says had unspecified mental health issues, punched two peers, including the classmate who later filed the suit.
Although the bus driver phoned Haney to request police response upon their arrival at the school 20 minutes later, only the principal and a nurse were present, according to the lawsuit.
Once off the bus, the student allegedly resumed her assault: she repeatedly smashed a steel water bottle over her classmate’s head, bit her face and punched her in the head and eye, according to the lawsuit.
A video of the assault circulated online and attracted widespread attention, partly because the alleged attacker is transgender.
Haney is accused of ordering the bus driver to “not touch” the student and to “let them fight it out,” the suit says. The victim was left with a concussion, post-traumatic stress disorder and a “human bite wound to the face,” the complaint says.
Haney did not respond to an inquiry from the Bangor Daily News.
“We continue to be shocked that the school system thinks that the behavior of its principal is acceptable,” said Stephen Smith, the plaintiff’s attorney. “The principal stood by and in our opinion actually seemed to encourage the senseless beating of a female student.”
Zboray previously said employee contact with students is informed by the state’s Restraint and Seclusion Law, which limits staff to using physical restraint only when a student’s behavior poses serious physical injury to themselves or others and only after less intrusive measures have failed, according to the news outlet Bar Harbor Story.
Zboray declined a Bangor Daily News request for comment on Friday, noting the matter involves ongoing litigation.