Two Michigan parents are suing a school district they say gets an A in deception and an F in honesty.
Dan and Jennifer Mead claim the Rockford Public School District used male pronouns for their daughter for months without ever informing them, according to WOOD-TV.
The school began using male pronouns and a male name for the girl in May 2022 and continued the practice for the 13-year-old girl when she began eighth grade that fall. The parents were never informed, although the outlet reported that earlier in middle school “[t]he school counselor was in regular contact with the parents about the child, discussing things like their mental health, school work and recent autism diagnosis.”
“No one with the school district told them that the school district had begun to treat her as a boy by calling her a masculine name and by male pronouns,” said Vincent Wagner, an attorney for the parents.
“They weren’t able to help her in a difficult time in her life,” Wagner said. “So it prevented them from helping her and that denied them their constitutional rights. Schools shouldn’t keep information like that from parents.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the Meads.
“Parents, not the government, have the right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children,” ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson said. “Schools should never deliberately hide vital information from parents, yet that’s exactly what the Rockford Public School District did.”
Does the public school system need a complete overhaul?
According to the lawsuit, which identifies the girl as G.M., school employees worked to ensure the Meads did not know what was going on.
“As directed by the District’s policy, District employees — employees the Meads had trusted with sensitive information about G.M.’s mental health — deliberately changed G.M.’s school records to conceal the fact that the District was treating their daughter as a boy without their knowledge,” the lawsuit said.
“The Meads only discovered it because one employee forgot to remove the masculine name and male pronouns from one section of G.M.’s records, after removing it from other sections of the same document, and inadvertently gave the Meads the document she had only partially altered,” the lawsuit said.
When the family asked the school what was going on the lawsuit said more deception took place.
“Yet, even after this revelation, the employee went back and further altered the District’s only copy of this document to remove reference to the masculine name and male pronouns the District was using for G.M.,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit included multiple internal district emails that refer to the Meads’ daughter as a male.
The lawsuit said that the parents are Christians and that the “District’s actions violated the Meads’ sincerely held religious beliefs and their parental rights.”
“When referring to G.M. by a masculine name and male pronouns, Defendants engaged in so-called ‘social transition’ which is a psychotherapeutic intervention for gender dysphoria that scientific evidence demonstrates has a powerful psychological effect on development and the outcomes of a child. By socially transitioning G.M. without notifying the Meads or seeking their consent, Defendants denied the Meads their fundamental right to direct their daughter’s healthcare related to the important topic of gender confusion or gender dysphoria,” the lawsuit said.
Rockford Public School District Superintendent Steven Matthews said the district is still reviewing the documents, according to WOOD.
“[W]e have not read through them completely. We respect the privacy of this family and as such have no comment at this time. Our staff continue to support all students and their families as we work together to help our students learn and grow.”
