As a former UMaine mechanical engineering student who was kicked out of school by our governor’s legislation, I found Gov. Janet Mills to be incredibly hypocritical in her spat with President Trump.

My whole life I had dreamed and worked toward becoming a mechanical engineer. In 2019, Gov. Mills and the Maine Democrats voted to remove certain religious exemptions to vaccine requirements to all grades of all schools, public and private, in the state of Maine.

Those who voted in the 2020 presidential primary may not have noticed that this was on the ballot. I had friends who were in various minority religions who were to be denied education by that legislation. Unwilling to let them stand alone, I refused to comply with the Democrats’ 2019 law. As a result, Gov. Mills and Maine Democrats have not only deprived me of my chance to finish my degree in Maine — the state I was born and raised in — but they have denied the children of minority religions the right to legally attend school in Maine.

I cannot afford to fight for their rights in court, but our governor will spend our tax dollars to fight for the right for high school boys to push out girls from sports.

Caleb Schrader
Bangor