An angry Michigan couple claims a school district referred to their autistic teenage daughter by different names and male pronouns without their knowledge or consent.
Dan and Jennifer Mead filed a lawsuit Monday against the Rockford Public School District and its board of education, alleging the district’s policy violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights when it failed to disclose and concealed that it treated their daughter like a boy, according to the lawsuit. which was shared by the law firm Alliance Defending Freedom.
Meads’ daughter, now 14, and listed as GM in court documents, is biologically female but identifies as male.
“Until the fall of 2022, Dan and Jennifer Mead had no reason to suspect that the Rockford Public School District would withhold from them important information about their daughter’s education and health,” the lawsuit alleges.
The Meads were first notified of the district’s action after receiving a doctor’s report from the school’s neuropsychologist referring to their daughter’s masculine name.
Dan and Jennifer Mead are suing their daughter’s school district after failing to disclose that the school used masculine names and pronouns when addressing their daughter. Alliance Defending Freedom
The policy, practice, usage and custom of the district is to refer to students with names and pronouns associated with a different gender without notifying their parents or asking for parental permission and concealing this action from their parents.
“Nobody in the school district told them that the school district had started treating him as a boy by calling him masculine names and with male pronouns,” Vincent Wagner, an attorney for the parents, told WOODTV.
Meads’ daughter has been enrolled in the school district since kindergarten and began attending East Rockford Middle School in August 2020 as a sixth grader when she began seeing one of the school’s counselors, Erin Cole.
Meads’ daughter has been enrolled in the school district since kindergarten and began attending East Rockford Middle School in August 2020 as a sixth grader when she began seeing one of the school’s counselors, Erin Cole. About 947,000,000 results (0.33 seconds) , WOODTV.com: Grand Rapids News & Weather | Grand …, WOOD-TV, https://www.woodtv.com, We tell local Grand Rapids weather news & stories, and we do what we do
Jennifer Mead and Cole allegedly had an “open correspondence” regarding GM’s visits to the counselor’s office throughout the year to discuss “important details about GM’s education, health and well-being, mostly via email.”
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In January 2022, the Meads learned that their daughter was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (without intellectual or language impairment), along with generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder, the lawsuit says.
The Meads shared the report with Cole and the school district, thinking it would ensure their daughter got more help from the school, with the counselor telling Jennifer Mead she would meet with other district staff to discuss plans to support GM
On May 4, 2022, GM sent a direct message to Cole using the school’s special computer program, asking his counselor to inform all of his teachers to start using male names when speaking to him.
“Hi, can you email my teacher and tell them to call me F[ ]?” the message read, with “F” being a common masculine name in the US.
After being told about the name and pronoun change, Cole continued to text the Meads about their son only using “GM” and using his pronouns and failing to tell them about the message he received from the student a few days earlier.
The parents’ attorney Vincent Wagner said, “No one in the school district told them that the school district had started treating him as a boy by calling him masculine names and with male pronouns.” About 947,000,000 results (0.33 seconds) , WOODTV.com: Grand Rapids News & Weather | Grand …, WOOD-TV, https://www.woodtv.com, We tell local Grand Rapids weather news & stories, and we do what we do
When GM entered eighth grade, school district neuropsychologist Heather Slater “started keeping a handwritten ‘Case Activity Log’ about GM,” marking the top of the sheet with feminine and masculine names and “F but Trans,” meaning female but transgender.
District employees had begun regularly using masculine names to refer to GM along with male pronouns “as if he were a boy” in September, the lawsuit claims.
In October, Slater sent Meads a REED GM assessment with a section containing a comment from a teacher referring to “FM”
District employees had begun regularly using masculine names to refer to GM along with male pronouns “as if he were a boy” in September, the lawsuit claims. About 947,000,000 results (0.33 seconds) , WOODTV.com: Grand Rapids News & Weather | Grand …, WOOD-TV, https://www.woodtv.com, We tell local Grand Rapids weather news & stories, and we do what we do
Jennifer Mead responded to Slater about the possible mistake but was shocked to learn that her daughter was being treated as a boy at school.
Slater admitted to the school’s principal that he had forgotten to edit one teacher’s comments to remove all mention of male names and pronouns as he had done elsewhere in the report.
The neuropsychologist defended his actions by saying, “This is just the basis for a legal document.”
The district’s website states, “The district has adopted a non-mandatory guidance document from the Michigan Department of Education as RPS policy for treating students as the opposite sex,” according to the document.
Slater admitted to the school’s principal that he had forgotten to edit one teacher’s comments to remove all mention of male names and pronouns as he had done elsewhere in the report. About 947,000,000 results (0.33 seconds) , WOODTV.com: Grand Rapids News & Weather | Grand …, WOOD-TV, https://www.woodtv.com, We tell local Grand Rapids weather news & stories, and we do what we do
The Meads pulled their daughter out of public school and started homeschooling on Oct. 24. 2022.
The parents seek nominal damages, compensatory damages, and other damages to which they may be entitled, along with reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
