WINTHROP, Maine — Seven candidates for the Winthrop School Board were asked Thursday night how the board should handle student privacy, inclusion and participation in school athletics. Their answers split over whether Maine law or federal law should guide the board.

The question followed months of debate over a proposal by board member Timothy Wess, a candidate for a full term, to align district policy with an executive order from President Donald Trump. The proposal would require students to play on sports teams and use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their biological sex, rather than their gender identity, which would bar biologically male students from girls' teams, according to reporting by the Kennebec Journal, the Portland Press Herald and Maine Public. The Maine Human Rights Commission is suing seven Maine school districts that adopted similar policies, the Press Herald and Maine Public reported.

The Bailey Library hosted the forum on Oct. 29, five days before Tuesday's municipal election. Bethany Drouin, Whitney Kahn, Erin Steorts and Wess are running for two full-term seats. Ella Braaten, Tracy Hovance and Julie McFarland are running for one partial-term seat, according to the town's candidate list.

Moderators combined audience questions into one that they asked every candidate: how the board should navigate "issues surrounding student privacy, inclusion, and participation in school athletics" while treating all students fairly. A moderator said he was asking how candidates would handle the issue, not what their positions were.

Kahn said the board's code of ethics requires it to follow Maine law. She said policies "should not be created at a school board level that violate Maine state law," and said "seven districts" are "being sued right now for implementing policies such as that." She also said Winthrop administrators had told the board that the current policies "have been functioning and there have been no issues."

In her opening statement, Kahn said the board majority spent budget season "creating a discriminatory policy that violates Maine state law." She said the same policy "has been adopted by seven other districts, all of whom are being sued by the Maine Human Rights Commission," and that she opposes "the board majority's crusade," which she said would not make girls safer.

Wess, a teacher and board member, answered next. "I believe we should follow federal law," he said, adding that "you cannot give rights to one class and discriminate against another class." In his opening statement, Wess cited Title IX and said, "Some of these candidates here want to … take away our girl sports and make it co-ed. I do not believe in that."

Braaten, who said she is an attorney, said the board must act "in accordance with applicable federal law and state law." She warned that a board acting outside its authority "does become a potential significant liability to the district."

McFarland said the board has sought advice from its lawyers on the question. She called it "a hot topic" this school year. Steorts said the board should "serve the majority" of students and make sure it does not "take others' rights away while giving rights to another group." Drouin said every student "deserves to be treated as valued and important," and Hovance said the board should "respect their spaces and their privacy."

In their opening statements, Kahn and McFarland each said they are running together with Drouin. "We need all three seats to bring the board's focus back onto the success of our students, schools, and teachers," Kahn said.

Winthrop's municipal election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.