Two furious parents are suing a Michigan public school district for using male pronouns for their eighth-grade autistic daughter without their knowledge.
Dan and Jennifer Mead filed a lawsuit against the Rockford Public School District on Monday after discovering the school had been referring to their child using ‘he/him’ pronouns last year.
The lawsuit alleges the school violated the parents’ First and 14th Amendment rights by using a masculine name and pronouns for their child, as reported by NewsNation.
According to court documents, the school complied with its policy by using the student’s chosen name and pronouns.
The Meads withdrew their child from the Rockford Public School District, where the child had been attending since kindergarten, and now homeschool their daughter.
Dan and Jennifer Mead are suing a Michigan public school district for using male pronouns for their eighth-grade daughter without their knowledge
The lawsuit against the Rockford Public School District alleges that the school violated the parents’ First and 14th Amendment rights
‘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,’ Vincent Wagner, who represents the parents, told WOOD-TV.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by the Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of the parents, alleges East Rockford Middle School staff referred to their daughter by a male name and pronouns for at least two months.
The parents found out in October 2022 when a school psychologist inadvertently included the child’s masculine name in one section of a report that was sent home.
The eight-grader’s name had been changed back to the birth name in the rest of the document, according to the lawsuit.
‘At first, the Meads thought this was a mistake — that another child’s information had been included in their daughter’s documents,’ said the Alliance Defending Freedom in a statement.
‘When the Meads asked district employees to refrain from using the masculine name and male pronouns, the district refused to comply with their wishes,’ the lawsuit claims.
‘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 lawsuit alleges the school’s policy violated the parents’ First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and their 14th Amendment rights to parental rights.
The Meads are also seeking an unspecified amount in compensatory damages, saying that homeschooling has caused the couple to lose income, as reported by the Washington Times.
‘Homeschooling has required Mr. Mead to remain out of the workforce, which has caused the Meads to lose his income,’ said the complaint.
‘These and other damages were caused by the District’s actions treating G.M. as a boy named F.M. while concealing those actions from the Meads.’
‘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,’ Vincent Wagner, the parent’s attorney said
The parents found out in October 2022 when a school psychologist inadvertently included the child’s masculine name in one section of a report that was sent home
The student, who was born female, began meeting with a school counselor at East Rockford Middle School in 2020 and was recently diagnosed with autism.
Over the past two years, the Meads ‘placed significant trust in the counselor as well as other district employees’ and communicated regularly with them.
However, when the child asked the counselor and other staff to refer to them by a masculine name and pronouns, the school refrained from sharing this information with the parents, according to the complaint.
‘Parents, not the government, have the right to direct the upbringing, education and health care of their children,’ said Kate Anderson, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom.
‘Schools should never deliberately hide vital information from parents, yet that’s exactly what the Rockford Public School District did,’ Anderson added.
Alliance Defending Freedom said the child was ‘socially transitioned’ by being referred with male pronouns.
‘When schools make it a policy to lie to parents, kids get hurt,’ the organization said in a statement.
Superintendent Steven Matthews told NewsNation the district had not yet been served with the legal documents.
‘As such we have not read through them completely, we respect the privacy of this family and as such have no comment at this time,’ he said in a statement.
‘Our staff continue to support all students and their families as we work together to help our students learn and grow.’