(Discern TV)—A lawsuit filed on Monday by the Alliance Defending Freedom claims that the Rockford Public School District of Michigan has violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of two parents.
Dan and Jennifer Mead, on whose behalf the ADF is filing the lawsuit, discovered last October that school district staff had been referring to their daughter using masculine pronouns and a new, masculine name without informing them.
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The only reason they became aware of this fact is that a staffer accidentally included a note from one their daughter’s teachers in an official report, in which the teacher referred to the child using the new name and pronouns.
Dan and Jennifer Mead thought they had a great school and counselor at Rockford Public School District.
But then they learned the school was using a masculine name and pronouns for their young daughter and hiding the information from them.
We're suing.https://t.co/QGmf98pVTs pic.twitter.com/pTg5AMUhhx
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) December 19, 2023
The Meads had been sending their daughter to schools within the district for years, so when she started falling behind academically and concerns were raised about her mental health, they felt they could trust the school counselor to help them. They kept in regular contact with the counselor, not only learning what was discussed with their daughter, but sharing sensitive information of their own in an effort to help.
Such was their trust that Jennifer Mead even personally thanked the counsellor for their help, stating her daughter felt “safe talking with her”. It wouldn’t be long before they learned this trust was horribly misplaced.
According to the Alliance Defending Freedom:
That May, however, the counselor withheld a critical piece of information from the Meads. One day, the counselor received a message from the Meads’ daughter asking that teachers begin referring to her by a new masculine name. Despite the trust the Meads had placed in the school district, the counselor did not tell them about this request.
When the Meads’ daughter began eighth grade in the fall of 2022, the school district was already referring to her by the masculine name. By early September at the latest, district employees were regularly using that name and male pronouns to refer to her. All the while, no one asked the Meads for permission to make this change or even informed them about it. Instead, they continued using their daughter’s correct name and female pronouns when talking with the Meads.
When the Meads confronted the school district over the issue and demanded their daughter be addressed by her proper name and pronouns, the principal of her school denied them and insisted they would continue addressing her as they pleased, regardless of parental input.
Though the principal claimed it was a matter of state law, the lawsuit claims the Michigan Department of Education makes it clear its guidelines regarding students who identify as transgender are voluntary and that any application of them is a deliberate choice made by the school district.
As devout Christians, the transitioning of their daughter violates their religious beliefs, and as Americans, it violates their constitutional rights. Unsurprisingly, the Meads have since removed their daughter from the school and are now homeschooling her.
I pray the family can heal from this and that no lasting damage has been done to their daughter by educational institutions which increasingly see themselves as the primary authority in the lives of our children, rather than public servants meant to assist us in their development.
Five Things New “Preppers” Forget When Getting Ready for Bad Times Ahead
The preparedness community is growing faster than it has in decades. Even during peak times such as Y2K, the economic downturn of 2008, and Covid, the vast majority of Americans made sure they had plenty of toilet paper but didn’t really stockpile anything else.
Things have changed. There’s a growing anxiety in this presidential election year that has prompted more Americans to get prepared for crazy events in the future. Some of it is being driven by fearmongers, but there are valid concerns with the economy, food supply, pharmaceuticals, the energy grid, and mass rioting that have pushed average Americans into “prepper” mode.
There are degrees of preparedness. One does not have to be a full-blown “doomsday prepper” living off-grid in a secure Montana bunker in order to be ahead of the curve. In many ways, preparedness isn’t about being able to perfectly handle every conceivable situation. It’s about being less dependent on government for as long as possible. Those who have proper “preps” will not be waiting for FEMA to distribute emergency supplies to the desperate masses.
Below are five things people new to preparedness (and sometimes even those with experience) often forget as they get ready. All five are common sense notions that do not rely on doomsday in order to be useful. It may be nice to own a tank during the apocalypse but there’s not much you can do with it until things get really crazy. The recommendations below can have places in the lives of average Americans whether doomsday comes or not.
Note: The information provided by this publication or any related communications is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. We do not provide personalized investment, financial, or legal advice.
Secured Wealth
Whether in the bank or held in a retirement account, most Americans feel that their life’s savings is relatively secure. At least they did until the last couple of years when de-banking, geopolitical turmoil, and the threat of Central Bank Digital Currencies reared their ugly heads.
It behooves Americans to diversify their holdings. If there’s a triggering event or series of events that cripple the financial systems or devalue the U.S. Dollar, wealth can evaporate quickly. To hedge against potential turmoil, many Americans are looking in two directions: Crypto and physical precious metals.
There are huge advantages to cryptocurrencies, but there are also inherent risks because “virtual” money can become challenging to spend. Add in the push by central banks and governments to regulate or even replace cryptocurrencies with their own versions they control and the risks amplify. There’s nothing wrong with cryptocurrencies today but things can change rapidly.
As for physical precious metals, many Americans pay cash to keep plenty on hand in their safe. Rolling over or transferring retirement accounts into self-directed IRAs is also a popular option, but there are caveats. It can often take weeks or even months to get the gold and silver shipped if the owner chooses to close their account. This is why Genesis Gold Group stands out. Their relationship with the depositories allows for rapid closure and shipping, often in less than 10 days from the time the account holder makes their move. This can come in handy if things appear to be heading south.
Lots of Potable Water
One of the biggest shocks that hit new preppers is understanding how much potable water they need in order to survive. Experts claim one gallon of water per person per day is necessary. Even the most conservative estimates put it at over half-a-gallon. That means that for a family of four, they’ll need around 120 gallons of water to survive for a month if the taps turn off and the stores empty out.
Being near a fresh water source, whether it’s a river, lake, or well, is a best practice among experienced preppers. It’s necessary to have a water filter as well, even if the taps are still working. Many refuse to drink tap water even when there is no emergency. Berkey was our previous favorite but they’re under attack from regulators so the Alexapure systems are solid replacements.
For those in the city or away from fresh water sources, storage is the best option. This can be challenging because proper water storage containers take up a lot of room and are difficult to move if the need arises. For “bug in” situations, having a larger container that stores hundreds or even thousands of gallons is better than stacking 1-5 gallon containers. Unfortunately, they won’t be easily transportable and they can cost a lot to install.
Water is critical. If chaos erupts and water infrastructure is compromised, having a large backup supply can be lifesaving.
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies
There are multiple threats specific to the medical supply chain. With Chinese and Indian imports accounting for over 90% of pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States, deteriorating relations could make it impossible to get the medicines and antibiotics many of us need.
Stocking up many prescription medications can be hard. Doctors generally do not like to prescribe large batches of drugs even if they are shelf-stable for extended periods of time. It is a best practice to ask your doctor if they can prescribe a larger amount. Today, some are sympathetic to concerns about pharmacies running out or becoming inaccessible. Tell them your concerns. It’s worth a shot. The worst they can do is say no.
If your doctor is unwilling to help you stock up on medicines, then Jase Medical is a good alternative. Through telehealth, they can prescribe daily meds or antibiotics that are shipped to your door. As proponents of medical freedom, they empathize with those who want to have enough medical supplies on hand in case things go wrong.
Energy Sources
The vast majority of Americans are locked into the grid. This has proven to be a massive liability when the grid goes down. Unfortunately, there are no inexpensive remedies.
Those living off-grid had to either spend a lot of money or effort (or both) to get their alternative energy sources like solar set up. For those who do not want to go so far, it’s still a best practice to have backup power sources. Diesel generators and portable solar panels are the two most popular, and while they’re not inexpensive they are not out of reach of most Americans who are concerned about being without power for extended periods of time.
Natural gas is another necessity for many, but that’s far more challenging to replace. Having alternatives for heating and cooking that can be powered if gas and electric grids go down is important. Have a backup for items that require power such as manual can openers. If you’re stuck eating canned foods for a while and all you have is an electric opener, you’ll have problems.
Don’t Forget the Protein
When most think about “prepping,” they think about their food supply. More Americans are turning to gardening and homesteading as ways to produce their own food. Others are working with local farmers and ranchers to purchase directly from the sources. This is a good idea whether doomsday comes or not, but it’s particularly important if the food supply chain is broken.
Most grocery stores have about one to two weeks worth of food, as do most American households. Grocers rely heavily on truckers to receive their ongoing shipments. In a crisis, the current process can fail. It behooves Americans for multiple reasons to localize their food purchases as much as possible.
Long-term storage is another popular option. Canned foods, MREs, and freeze dried meals are selling out quickly even as prices rise. But one component that is conspicuously absent in shelf-stable food is high-quality protein. Most survival food companies offer low quality “protein buckets” or cans of meat, but they are often barely edible.
Prepper All-Naturals offers premium cuts of steak that have been cooked sous vide and freeze dried to give them a 25-year shelf life. They offer Ribeye, NY Strip, and Tenderloin among others.
Having buckets of beans and rice is a good start, but keeping a solid supply of high-quality protein isn’t just healthier. It can help a family maintain normalcy through crises.
Prepare Without Fear
With all the challenges we face as Americans today, it can be emotionally draining. Citizens are scared and there’s nothing irrational about their concerns. Being prepared and making lifestyle changes to secure necessities can go a long way toward overcoming the fears that plague us. We should hope and pray for the best but prepare for the worst. And if the worst does come, then knowing we did what we could to be ready for it will help us face those challenges with confidence.
The atheistic, pagan, technocratic psychologists and sociologists are pushing and imposing this porneia mess in the first place. Whatever you do, don’t take your child to one of them, especially a government employee like a school counselor.
The state not only believes it knows better than parents. It believes it knows better than God and His word. It sees itself as the primary authority above God Himself.
I hope these parents win, as well as others with similar suits, such as the ones in Virginia who had their child taken from them. But it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the state brought in some technocrats to testify, and presented a sad-sounding sob story, the courts would side with the state. They typically do side with the technocrats. Put an “expert” in front of the judge, and it’s just about an automatic win.
Everyday activity in the state of Colorado. Jeffco, Poudre, Adams12, and many many others. All actively engaging in indoctrination campaigns where they push this on children, and most have special policies not to inform parents. A statewide educational survey revealed what we already knew to be true, over half of all Colorado parents, and the students, collectively think education is on the wrong track. The Colorado teachers union needs disbanded, having declared openly they support socialism, standing in defiance of existing law to teach civics. They’ll change that law in short order as well. Arts and sports funding has been largely redirected in a state wide effort to hire more SEL counselors, as schools waste hundreds of thousands of dollars routinely, hiring DEI consultant groups. Whom are populated by, you guessed it, trans and radical feminest supporters. The collusion and rackateering is out in the open, conflicts of interest abound. Apparently the public school systems are simply instruments for embezzlement these days. Home schooling jumped about 2%. Charter schools jumped to approximately 15% of all educational outlets as a new form of radicalism on the other side takes hold, they’re all tied to Hillsdale Colleges. An equally problematic issue on the other side of the isle, they’re cracking open 100 year old educational models, using workarounds to push a private school through via public funds. The charters are not accountable to democratic models, are run like private clubs, and they openly discriminate even more than public schools, something we did not thing possible, but trust me, it’s happening. As misappropriating public education funds to everything the adults want, rather than what’s good for the children, the charters channel an absurd portion of the funds back to parent organization endowments, pay grossly imbalanced pay scales to upper management, have incredible turnover on the low end, and don’t even offer sports, science labs, or anything of that nature. So now public schools shutter due to lack of enrollment. As charters flourish and create a new educational model like it’s a full century in the past and all the kids spend their entire year with one single teacher, and answer to managers with inflated egos, forced to abide another but equally insidious form of totalitarianism.
To all the idiots and zealots on both sides of the issue, both those pushing trans ideologies and those whom are destroying our public educational institutions by supporting charters, I have one question; Did you ever wake up and say to yourself; Today is a good day to join a cult. Or did that just happen because you consume too much propaganda from either side? I’m sorry, the solution is to support neither side but instead fight to reclaim public schools, replace every manager and employee who’m is so disrespectful delusional and indoctrinated they are using pronouns, believing in more than one gender, or alternatively actually believe that high cost management is more important than all the traditional benefits of public school, they all need to go. Their calling was not be be educators as they apparently are better at embezzlement and instituting discriminatory systems than anything else. The last few decent teachers in the middle are retiring left and right or outright quitting in objection, as they can and will lose their pensions for misgendering and not affirming youth with pending psychological problems, most of which are brought on by the schools inability to recognize gender dysphoria is a symtom of imbalanced hormones and endocrine systems, due to pervasive chemical exposure in foods and their everyday environments.
The entire system is broken. We need help in Colorado. This comes from the top down. Colorado, still holding the crown as having the most counties with more votes than registered voters. The pioneer of mail in ballot voter fraud. The champion of progressive causes as literal marxist communists have taken over our government systems. Special bonus; we have among the highest if not the highest, proportion of federal workers in our state. That’s Colorado for you. Why anyone would want to move here on purpose remains a mystery. They’ve ruined public and private education in this state. The government is broken seemingly beyond repair. Crime is rampant. The educators primary objection certainly does appear to be indoctrinating children. Since when in the hell did it become a prerequisite to be an ally of every different and often unfathomable form of homosexuality, simply to have your kids in public school? Since when did it become a requirement to be a religious fundamentalist to access alternative schools? You know what they say, there is no greater objection than absence. We would not trust the people on either side of this issue to clean our toilets, much less be in charge of forming our childrens identity and scholarly habits.
Bad news for all those charter school parents, dressing up your kids in uniforms and subjecting them to rigid behavioral requirements will not magically make them better students. The charter schools management structure is a thinly disguised money grab, devoid of almost everything good which should be present in publicly funded school systems. Bad news for the public educators, the trans movement is a fad, there are only two genders, and it might be time to admit you’ve long since lost the ideological battle, which is why the schools are shuttering and there is a prolific expansion of charters. Those bozos on both sides are just making things far worse than they need to be. There is a saying; Good ideas do not require force. That’s how you know all of this is a worthless cause. Education is broken. Don’t ask don’t tell was far better than this, charters should be private school modeled institutions and not be funded by public education funds, and we’re done being polite to the pro trans crazies. No wonder the kids are turning to drugs at a breathtaking pace, there is not a sane adult in the room for them to learn important lessons about how to get along with everyone and remain moderate in the face of opposition. They tell us we have to pick a side. Guess what, we don’t. We hate everyone equally and if you all have a problem with that, the complaint line starts way the hell back there. Why can’t they just stick to math and science, with electives for art and gym? It’s not rocket science, as the overly complicated nature of navigating education now bears a basic reflection on how utterly incompetent the educational managers have become. Why don’t you all start another gay straight alliance club, or file another ten thousand new charter applications until one more actually makes it through. That ought to solve things. Bozos.
Thank you for reading. Your pal; Apache Helicopter.