FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 15, 2025
Parents Deserve a Voice: Why I Organized the Protect MI Parents Petition
When I launched the Protect MI Parents petition, it was never about opposing health education. It was about ensuring that Michigan schools remain focused on academics, biology, and parental involvement rather than identity-based ideology.
I support teaching students about nutrition, physical health, safety, mental health awareness, and age-appropriate human anatomy. Those are important parts of a quality education.
What I oppose is requiring schools to teach concepts such as gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation as foundational components of K-12 health education. I believe those topics fall outside the proper role of public education and should remain the responsibility of parents.
Over the course of just ten days, more than 1,700 Michigan residents signed the Protect MI Parents petition. More than 1,000 individuals also submitted written comments explaining their concerns about the proposed standards.
Every signature and comment was personally delivered to the Michigan State Board of Education and provided to members of the legislative oversight committee responsible for reviewing the standards.
Parents from across Michigan traveled to Lansing to speak during the public comment period. Many arranged childcare, took time off work, and prepared remarks expecting three minutes to address the Board. Two days before the vote, after adding approximately twenty pages to the proposed standards, the Board reduced individual speaking time from three minutes to one minute, leaving little opportunity for meaningful public participation.
Throughout the meeting, many parents expressed frustration that they felt their concerns had already been dismissed before public testimony began. During public comment, several Board members appeared focused on phones or laptops instead of listening to the parents who had traveled from across the state to speak.
My concern extends beyond one set of health standards. I believe this reflects a broader pattern in which parents increasingly feel excluded from decisions affecting their children's education.
Michigan students continue to struggle academically. Reading and mathematics proficiency remain among the state's most significant educational challenges. I believe restoring academic excellence must take priority over expanding ideological instruction.
My campaign is built on a simple principle: parents deserve a meaningful voice in their children's education, schools should prioritize academics, and government should remain accountable to the families it serves.
This issue became one of the major reasons I decided to run for the Michigan House of Representatives.
The conversation did not end with the Board's vote. It marked the beginning of a broader movement by parents across Michigan to demand greater transparency, accountability, and common sense in public education.