Alliance Defending Freedom Sues District for Changing Child’s Gender Identity Behind Parents’ Backs

Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a lawsuit against the Rockford Public School District on behalf of a Michigan couple who learned that school employees had begun treating their middle-school daughter as a boy without their knowledge or permission.

Dan and Jennifer Mead withdrew their daughter from East Rockford Middle School in October 2022 upon discovering, by accident, that counselors and teachers had started referring to her by a masculine name and male pronouns.

The district had also altered official records to remove references to these actions before sending the documents home to parents, furthering the deception.

What is Alliance Defending Freedom?

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, marriage and family, and the sanctity of life.

Alliance Defending Freedom Church Alliance and Alliance Defending Freedom Ministry Alliance play crucial roles in supporting and defending religious freedom. The Church Alliance provides legal resources and assistance to churches, ensuring they can freely exercise their faith without facing unwarranted legal challenges. On the other hand, the Ministry Alliance focuses on supporting various Christian ministries, enabling them to operate in accordance with their beliefs and values. Both alliances are committed to safeguarding religious liberties and advocating for the protection of constitutional rights.

In the lawsuit Mead v. Rockford Public School District, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys contend that the district violated the Meads’ fundamental parental rights protected by the Constitution. ADF lawyers argue that parents have the right to make decisions regarding their children’s upbringing, education, and healthcare.

The Meads say their daughter, who started struggling academically and emotionally in 6th grade at East Rockford Middle School in 2020, had begun working closely with a school counselor they trusted. For two years, this counselor freely updated Jennifer Mead on private meetings with her daughter.

According to the suit, this changed in May 2022, when the unnamed daughter, then in 8th grade, sent the counselor an email asking her to inform teachers she wanted to start going by a masculine name. According to the Meads, the counselor chose not to notify the Meads of this request and corresponded with Jennifer Mead multiple times before school ended without mentioning it.

By the time their daughter started 9th grade at Rockford Senior High School in fall 2022, the entire district had shifted to referring to her by this new masculine name and male pronouns – a transition the Meads assert occurred without their consent.

It was only in October that year, when reviewing academic plans that Dan Mead first noticed paperwork that included masculine references to his daughter. Despite pleas from the Meads to respect their parental wishes, the district refused to revert the changes, citing internal school policies.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys argue that the school “deprived the Meads of a cognizable liberty interest when they referred to G.M. by a masculine name and male pronouns without notifying the Meads or seeking their consent and when they concealed those actions.”

In a statement on Alliance Defending Freedom Media, ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of ADF’s Center for Parental Rights, said that parents, not the government, have the right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children.

“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,” Anderson said.

The case against the school district, Mead v. Rockford Public School District, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.