Parents’ lawsuit against Michigan school district over hiding daughter’s trans identity can proceed: court

September 24, 2025

A U.S. District Court has ruled that a couple may proceed with their lawsuit against a Michigan school district that concealed their daughter’s gender identity change from them.

The Christian Post reports that Dan and Jennifer Mead filed a complaint against Rockford Public School District officials after learning that the district’s policy was to keep their daughter’s self-declared gender identity a secret from her parents.

Last week, United States District Judge Paul Maloney, issued an opinion and order that partly denied and granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Maloney wrote that the lawsuit, “contains sufficient factual allegations to support a claim for a violation of Plaintiffs’ fundamental rights as parents in the care, custody and control of their child, a right protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Maloney’s opinion continued, “Defendants have not met their burden to show how concealing a child’s gender transition from its parents promotes that child’s safety.”

The judge also noted that “school employees did not keep G.M.’s gender transition private. School employees used G.M. by her preferred masculine name openly and publicly at school.”

According to the Christian Post, Maloney also found that “the complaint states a claim under the Fourteenth Amendment for deprivation of liberty without due process,” although he also decided to dismiss “Plaintiffs’ free exercise cause of action.”

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of ADF’s Center for Parental Rights, said in a statement last Friday, “By intentionally concealing this information from the Meads, the school district violated their constitutional right as parents to make decisions about their daughter’s upbringing, education, and healthcare. We will continue to work toward final victory for the Mead family.”

The Meads filed their lawsuit in December 2023 after employees at East Rockford Middle School hid their daughter’s social transition from them by deceptively changing her records before they were sent home.

When the Meads became aware of what was happening, Dan Mead asked school officials to stop referring to their daughter by a male name and pronouns but they refused to do so, citing school district policy on gender identity.

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