AUGUSTA — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that the state Department of Education, Maine Principals’ Association and Greely High School have violated an act meant to ban sex discrimination.

The decision came Monday after the federal government said it was investigating the state following reports that a transgender girl won a high school girls’ track and field competition. 

“We hope the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association and Greely High School will work with us to come to an agreement that restores fairness in women’s sports,” Anthony Archeval, acting director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights said in a statement.

The investigation began Feb. 21, the day President Donald Trump called out Gov. Janet Mills for allowing transgender girls to participate in high school sports. 

“You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t,” Trump told Mills.

Mills said she will follow state and federal laws and then said, “See you in court.” 

Trump had previously signed an executive order related to Title IX, saying he wants to protect female student athletes from having “to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males.”

The finding released Monday gives the state 10 days to comply or “risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for appropriate action.” 

Maine House Republicans issued a statement following the ruling, calling on Mills to comply with the federal directive.

“They need to abandon this ignorant, indefensible position and uphold Title IX protections for our girls,” House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) said in a statement. 

The Mills administration declined to comment and said to refer to the governor’s previous statements.  

On Feb. 21, Mills stated that no president can withhold funding appropriated by Congress – to do so would violate the Constitution.

Mills also stated that “this is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot.”