Cheryl Fritze, director of News Operations for Michigan News Source, explained how an elementary school in Michigan is teaching students about pronouns through a book called They She He Me: Free to Be!, a picture book about “busting gender stereotypes and assumptions one pronoun at a time.”
Fritze (pictured above) said Katie Heid, an assistant news director for Michigan News Source, learned about the pronoun course through a parent who forwarded her a letter sent out to parents of children who attend Schavey Road Elementary about the upcoming course.
“Our great reporter Katie Heid, an assistant news director, found this yesterday when a parent forwarded the letter to her that went out to parents of an elementary school that teaches kindergarten and first-graders. [The letter] went out last week saying they would be teaching pronouns over the next few weeks, and the letter went out to explain what they were doing. Now remember, these are kindergartners and first-graders, so they can’t read. So the teacher, the in-class teacher, will be reading to them from a book that is titled, They She He Me: Free to Be!, and it is indeed about pronouns and teaching kindergartners and first-graders about pronouns and learning that it’s not okay to change someone’s pronouns on purpose,” Fritze explained on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Fritze noted how children in the early grades of elementary school “don’t know words, much less pronouns.”
“At five and six years old, some of them are still eating mud, let’s face it. So they don’t know words, much less pronouns,” Fritze said.
“I looked at some of the pictures online [of the book] and it’s what appears, to you and I, to be boys wearing tutus and dressed up…At some level in school, maybe high school, if you want to do it, but I just question personally and as a news department, we are questioning five year olds and six year olds,” Fritze added.
Fritze explained that the course is planned to be taught to students “over several weeks.” Parents must sign and turn in a form on Thursday if they decide to opt their children out of the lesson.
“This is going to be a several-week lesson. In fairness, you can opt out of the lesson, but let’s just hope parents are paying attention to see that’s an option for them,” Fritze said.
Regarding pushback from parents, Fritze said that when Heid contacted the school principal to inquire about the course, the principal forwarded the email to the school district’s superintendent with the message, “Here’s another one,” indicating that there had been other inquiries into the course.
Hours after Frtize’s interview on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, DeWitt Public Schools Superintendent Shanna Spickard doubled down on the school’s pronoun lesson; however, she said the course is now “only being offered to students in one first-grade classroom.”
However, on Friday, the school system announced it canceled the course for students, writing in a Facebook post that staff members received “inappropriate, angry, and threatening phone calls, emails, and social media messages.”
“The goal of the voluntary mini-lesson was to help promote Dewitt Public Schools’ vision of a safe, nurturing, and supportive learning environment where all learners can succeed. Unfortunately, it has become a major disruption and distraction to that vision in which our staff, administrators, and students feel unsafe. Therefore, in consultation with our School Board, administrative leadership team, and school employees, I have made the decision to cancel the mini-lesson to help ensure the safety of our entire school community and maintain our focus on providing a world-class education to all learners,” the school district’s superintendent said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Cheryl Fritze” by Michigan News Source.
