Man, if this was my kid I'd be furious. This school was using male pronouns and a male name for Jessica and Dean Mead's daughter for more than a year and the school thought it was fine to hide this from them. You'll be glad to know that as of late October the family has opted to homeschool.
Let me set the stage: A lot of you think of Detroit when you think of Michigan. But this is West Michigan. Look at the consistent block of red in this GIF showing different election results:
Rockford is a bustling commuter town north of Grand Rapids with the money to afford to be affluent white liberals, but it's also got a ton of churches and conservative values. In other words, this isn't deep-blue woke territory. It's a wholesome, God-fearing Midwestern town with an idyllic riverfront walk, designer shops, well-groomed baseball fields, and picket-fence homes starting around 500 Gs. And boy do the Rockford Rams love their football!
Enter the Mead family.
When their daughter was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in January of 2022, the Meads informed the East Rockford Middle School of the diagnosis, thinking this would improve the connection their daughter had already made with the school counselor.
However, over the next few months, their daughter would come to realize, somehow, and we don't know how, that she actually wanted to use male pronouns and have a male name. The young girl even sent a message to the counselor, Ms. Cole, informing her of the decision.
On May 4, 2022, G.M. sent a message directly to Cole using a school-specific computer program, asking her counselor to notify all her teachers to begin using a male name when speaking to her.
"Hi Could you email my teachers and tell them to call me F[ ]?" the message read, with "F" being a common masculine name in the US.
So the school started calling her, let's say, Frank. The staff also used masculine pronouns for "Frank."
Now, as Ms. Cole had had a relationship with Mrs. Mead throughout the years, mostly through email, you'd think Cole would let mom in on the massive change in her daughter's life. But no, the school didn't tell the parents; they simply kept it a secret.
According to the Meads, the school used a male name and masculine pronouns for an autistic teenager and kept this entirely secret from the parents.
This is a real story, so when people tell you that public schools don't do this kind of thing, you can refer them to this story right here. It's not a conspiracy theory or some MAGA cult scare tactic — it's real life, and it's happening right in front of our eyes in little towns you might think are safe.
Back to the story.
As G.M. entered the eighth grade, the school district's neuropsychologist Heather Slater "began keeping a handwritten "Case Activity Log" about G.M." marking the top of the sheet with both the feminine and masculine name and "F but Trans" meaning female but transgendered.
District employees had begun to regularly use the masculine name to refer to G.M. along with male pronouns "as though she were a boy" in September, the lawsuit claims.
In October, Slater sent G.M.'s REED evaluation to the Meads with one section containing comments from one teacher referring to an "F.M."
Jennifer Mead responded to Slater about a potential mistake but was shocked to learn that her daughter was being treated as a male at school.
Slater admitted to the school's principal that she had forgotten to edit the one teacher's comments to delete all mention of the masculine name and pronouns as she had done with other sections of the report.
So yeah, the school is essentially kicking themselves for letting the cat out of the bag here, not, as they should be, kicking themselves for keeping this whole thing a secret from the parents. Believe it or not, it's actually the district's policy to use the opposite sex pronouns and names for students without notifying the parents, and to even conceal the change.
For good measure, here's Michigan's guidance on the issue of gender identity in schools:
According to guidance from Michigan's Board of Education, when requested by a student, school staff should "engage in reasonable and good faith efforts to address students by their chosen name and pronouns that correspond to their gender identity..." and "When students have not come out to their parent(s), a disclosure to parent(s) should be carefully considered..."
The reason for this, we are told, is that the parents might disagree and that might cause negative feelings. So instead, these schools decide that it's better to lie and cut parents out of the picture entirely.
This is why the Meads are suing the school for violating not only their religious freedom, but also their 14th Amendment right to raise their daughter how they see fit.
The Rockford Public School District is wrong on so many levels for this, and we can only hope that justice will be served here. To keep secrets of this caliber from parents is beyond comprehension, and I hate to see this happen to anyone, especially the parents of an autistic child.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
