Parents Sue School District For Allegedly Transitioning Daughter in Secret

Michigan parents are suing a public school district over the claim district employees began socially transitioning their daughter without their consent, purportedly concealing details from the parents in the process. Dan and Jennifer Mead have sued the Rockford Public School District in Michigan, with the parents telling CBN News the case shows the troubling ways parental rights are sometimes undermined and upended. "While we were working with the school closely to address [our daughter's] academic needs in regards to her Autism, it came to our attention that the school was actively deceiving and hiding from us the fact that they were transitioning our daughter from being a girl to a boy, using a boy's name and pronouns," Dan Mead said in a recent interview. The parents said they only became aware of the purportedly covert social transitioning after being given paperwork in which they said a school employee had "inadvertently forgotten to change one of those male names and pronouns." Jennifer said she initially assumed it was a mistake and that the name and information pertained to someone else's child. Upon emailing the school to ask if it was an error, she said she found it odd no one reportedly responded. "We started to kind of dig a little bit more and say, 'Well, why would they not respond to an email over important information like this?" she said. "So, once we found out what was really happening, clearly I was just in shock [and] disbelief." Dan said he and his wife started to piece together what was happening and were trying to make a plan for how to handle the situation. "We had a meeting with the school principal," Dan said. "He said to us, 'Look, you have to understand this is the school policy. We're mandated to do this. The desires of the children outweigh those of the parents, and there's not a whole lot we can do in that regard.'" Kate Anderson, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, the firm representing the Meads, said such policies have become "very pervasive" in some areas across the U.S., with districts choosing not to tell parents about changes in student pronouns. Watch the interview for more of the family's story. __ "The Newsmakers Podcast" is a daily podcast based on "Newsmakers," a weekly TV show hosted by Billy Hallowell on The CBN News Channel and the CBN News YouTube Channel. You can watch "Newsmakers" on Thursday evenings to see three actors, pastors, authors, politicians, and other notable figures discussing issues of the day. On the podcast, we focus on one special interview each day. Be sure to subscribe today on your favorite podcast platforms.