Yes On 1′s Public School Supporter Don Mendell Won’t Face Ethics Investigation
Complaints of ethics violations against Don Mendell, the Nokomis Regional High School social worker and counselor who appeared in a Yes On 1 ad in Maine, were dropped after the Board of Social Worker Licensure found insufficient evidence to pursue the claims. Reached after the decision was made at a hearing, which Mendell attended, he told a reporter, “This has been difficult to have this kind of threatening feeling of my livelihood, my licensing to practice social work being in peril because I participated in the referendum, the political system. So it feels like vindication — not just for me, but for any person who wants to fully participate in the democratic system. People should hopefully take this as a sort of civics lesson that free speech is precious and we all have that right.” Mendell appeared in the ad after a colleague, literacy coach Sherri Gould, popped up in a spot condemning Question 1. Complaints against him were first filed in October
