A Michigan couple sued the Rockport school district after several school employees changed their child's pronouns on all official records and began treating her like a boy behind her parents' backs. Furthermore, according to the lawsuit, these employees took steps, following the policy established by the Rockford Public School District, to ensure that Dan and Jennifer Mead wouldn't find out, which in no case had they consented to.
"Schools should never deliberately hide vital information from parents, yet that’s exactly what the Rockford Public School District did. District employees didn’t even notify Dan and Jennifer—let alone seek their consent—before beginning to call their young daughter by a…
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) December 18, 2023
Changing the minor's pronouns on all official records
According to the organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the couple in court, the couple found out what was happening "when an employee unintentionally failed to completely alter a report about their daughter before sharing it with them." School employees altered the official records which identified the girl as a boy before sending them to her parents. According to ADF, "concealing this important information, the district violated the Meads’ fundamental parental rights. The U.S. Constitution protects their right as parents to make decisions about the upbringing, education, and health care of their children."
As the lawsuit explains, "The Meads’ daughter sent a message to the school counselor asking her to e-mail her teachers and tell them to start calling her by a masculine name. From then until the end of the school year, just a few weeks later, the counselor corresponded multiple times, at length, with Jennifer but did not notify her of her daughter’s request to use a masculine name. When the Meads’ daughter started eighth grade in August of that year—from the very first day—employees began referring to her by the masculine name without the Meads’ knowledge or consent. Within weeks, they were regularly using that masculine name and male pronouns for the Meads’ daughter."
An employee's mistake allowed them to realize what was happening
The school counselor, however, chose to continue hiding this information from the Meads in their multiple meetings while the rest of the teachers and school employees developed a system to prevent the parents from realizing what was happening with their daughter. Everything went up in smoke when the couple's daughter was diagnosed with autism and they met with a district employee to study how to accommodate the child's needs at the school. This included a document with comments from a teacher who used the male name and male pronouns to refer to their daughter. The parents decided to unenroll their daughter from school when they found out.
Kate Anderson, ADF Senior Counsel and Director of the ADF Parents' Rights Center, spoke out about the seriousness of the matter, especially since the district has an established policy to hide vital information about a minor from their parents.
Parents, not the government, have the right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of ADF’s Center for Parental Rights. “Schools should never deliberately hide vital information from parents, yet that’s exactly what the Rockford Public School District did. District employees didn’t even notify Dan and Jennifer—let alone seek their consent—before beginning to call their young daughter by a masculine name and male pronouns. Worse, district policy required employees to alter official records to conceal the district’s actions. By intentionally concealing this information from the Meads, the school district violated their constitutionally protected right to make decisions regarding their daughter’s education and wellbeing and destroyed the trust the Mead family had placed in the district and its employees.
