Michigan Parent Alliance for Safe Schools

08/15/2026

The American Academy of pediatrics recommends children under 12 not ride E -bikes, and no one should be riding E-bikes or E-scooters without helmets! Let's make sure we protect developing brains.


E-bike crashes are now the leading cause of injury for school-aged children in emergency rooms. Some of these injuries are very similar to injuries seen in motorcycle crashes, like traumatic brain injuries, broken bones and internal chest or abdominal injuries. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends that children under the age of 12 should not ride e-bikes. Learn more about e-bike safety: https://bit.ly/3RSvmwF

08/14/2026

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT HAZING IN MICHIGAN HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS.

Over the past year, disturbing allegations have surfaced in multiple Michigan high school athletic programs, and we are concerned that the cases making headlines may only represent a fraction of what is actually happening.

In Dundee, an investigation into the wrestling program uncovered videos of hazing, fights and physical assaults. Earlier this year in Fowlerville, a 14-year-old left the wrestling team after reporting that another student urinated on him in the showers. The district later reopened its investigation, acknowledged misconduct and identified problems with reporting, supervision and communication.

Now Michigan State Police are investigating alleged assaults involving members of the Gull Lake varsity football team stemming from an overnight football camp, with some alleged incidents reportedly captured on video.

But those are the cases that became news.

We have also seen recent accounts from Michigan parents describing younger athletes allegedly being singled out, intimidated, forced to perform excessive exercises or physically “punished” by older teammates.

It raises a much bigger question: How much is happening that we never hear about?

How many kids think this is simply what freshmen have to endure? How many are afraid of losing playing time, being ostracized by teammates or becoming an even bigger target if they speak up? How much gets dismissed as initiation, tradition, team bonding or “toughening kids up”?

There is a difference between demanding athletic training and humiliating, threatening, intimidating or physically harming a child.

So we want to hear from Michigan parents, students, coaches and educators. Do you believe hazing is still an issue in Michigan school sports? How often do you think it goes unreported? And most importantly, what should we be doing differently?

Do we need better reporting systems, more oversight of locker rooms and overnight camps, stronger accountability and training for coaches, or safer ways for students to speak up?

Because safe schools don’t stop at the classroom door. They include locker rooms, playing fields, buses, practices and camps. Creating safe schools means creating a culture where kids know adults will listen and act, and protecting a student will always matter more than protecting a tradition, a winning season or a program’s reputation.

Every kid deserves a safe team. Hazing has no place in school sports.

08/13/2026

🚨 Here we go again. Another manufactured culture war aimed directly at Michigan’s public schools.

Sen. Jim Runestad has introduced legislation to ban critical race theory, the 1619 Project and broadly defined “anti-American” academic theories from Michigan schools, while declaring that we need to get “racist CRT indoctrination out of our schools.”

Michigan schools are not supposed to teach children that they are inherently oppressive or personally guilty because of their skin color. And big surprise, they aren’t. But that claim is being deliberately conflated with something entirely different: teaching students honestly and accurately about racism, discrimination, and their very real role in American history.

Slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and redlining are American history. So are abolition, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement and generations of Americans who fought to make this country live up to the promise that all people are created equal. Teaching both the failures AND the progress isn’t teaching children to hate America.

It’s teaching them America.

And this is why MiPASS has been sounding the alarm about these culture-war attacks for years. The pattern is familiar: convince parents that public schools are secretly indoctrinating their children, attach frightening labels like “CRT” to ordinary lessons about race and history, and then use the resulting fear and distrust to justify restricting curriculum, challenging books and intimidating educators.

Of course classrooms shouldn’t be places for political indoctrination from the left OR the right. Students shouldn’t be assigned collective guilt because of their race. They should receive age-appropriate, fact-based instruction that teaches them how to examine evidence, understand different perspectives and think critically.

But protecting children from indoctrination does not mean protecting them from history.

Our kids are capable of understanding that America has accomplished extraordinary things while also having chapters of profound injustice. In fact, understanding how Americans confronted those injustices is part of understanding our democracy.

Michigan students don’t need politicians deciding which parts of our history are sufficiently “American” to discuss.

They need teachers who are allowed to teach it.

08/12/2026

This is the kind of politics Michigan parents should be tired of.

John James is once again reaching for fear and division, and this time he is doing it by turning kids into political villains. His graphic reduces a complicated issue to “COMMON SENSE” versus “CRAZY,” insinuating that Michigan parents should be afraid while conveniently leaving out the actual scale of what he is talking about.

For perspective, Michigan had more than 114,000 girls’ high-school sports participations in 2024–25. MHSAA granted transgender eligibility waivers to TWO girls that year.

TWO.

Meanwhile, what are Michigan’s female athletes actually thinking about as another sports season begins?

Making the team. Beating their personal best. Staying healthy and avoiding injuries. Affording pay-to-play fees and equipment. Getting enough practice time and access to good facilities. Earning playing time. Finding their place on a new team. Building friendships. Maybe getting noticed by a college coach. And simply getting to play the sport they love.

Those are the everyday realities of girls’ sports. And if John James wants to talk about “standing up for girls,” then let’s actually talk about standing up for girls.

Will he fight for adequate funding so girls’ athletic programs in Michigan schools and universities can thrive?

Will he work to ensure girls have equitable access to facilities, equipment, coaching and athletic opportunities?

Will he take seriously the safety of female athletes by demanding strong protections against sexual harassment, abuse and exploitation, and ensuring allegations are actually investigated and addressed?

Will he support efforts to keep participation costs from pricing girls out of sports altogether?

Will he make sure schools have qualified athletic trainers and appropriate injury prevention and concussion protocols?

Those are ways we actually elevate and protect girls in sports.

There can absolutely be legitimate conversations about fairness, biology, safety and athletic eligibility, and reasonable people can disagree about where those lines should be drawn.

But there is an enormous difference between having that policy discussion and taking an issue that involved just TWO children statewide that year and blowing it up into a political boogeyman designed to frighten Michigan parents.

Transgender kids aren’t political operatives or powerful special interests. They are kids. And they should not have to carry the weight of an adult political campaign looking for something to make parents afraid of.

So if John James wants to tell Michigan that he is going to “stand up for girls’ sports,” great.

Tell us how you’re going to stand up for the hundreds of thousands of girls who actually play them.

Because protecting and elevating female athletes requires a whole lot more than fear-mongering about two kids.

Michigan girls deserve investment, opportunity, safety and serious leadership. And ALL Michigan kids deserve to be treated with dignity, not turned into campaign ammunition.

08/11/2026

You may have heard that President Trump issued an executive order about child vaccines. It's important to know that though it comes from the White House, the order does not have any immediate impact other than continuing to sow doubt and confusion about vaccines that have repeatedly been shown to be safe and effective. State and school-based vaccination policies do not change because of an executive order, and neither do FDA approvals of existing products nor manufacturers' rights to make and distribute the products they have received approval for after careful testing. The American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Family Physicians, which represent most of the doctors who provide primary care to the nation's children, both issued immediate statements reminding parents that their organizations' vaccination recommendations are based on decades of scientific evaluation. They recommend that if parents have questions, they talk to the people they have entrusted their child's health to: the team at their primary care clinic.

Keeping kids safe and healthy in schools starts with making sure that they are up-to-date with their vaccines and nothing about that has changed. 

https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2026/aap-statement-in-response-to-executive-order-on-vaccines/

https://www.aafp.org/media-center/aafp-statements/family-physicians-vaccines-essential-to-preventing-serious-illness-and-death

08/06/2026

Our schools play a critical role in keeping students, teachers and staff safe - emotionally, and physically - and it starts with making sure school district leaders have the latest information on proven safety strategies.

We're asking every Michigan parent, caregiver, and community member to take one simple action today: invite your school board members, superintendent, school safety staff and school resource officers, and district communications administrators to attend this upcoming webinar on Michigan's Safe Homes, Safe Schools law, co-hosted by End Gun Violence Michigan, Michigan Department of Education, and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on August 12th at 10am.

This session will cover important new updates directly from MDE and MDHHS, implementation guidance, and provide practical information and resources that every school district should know to help support student safety and comply with state law that requires all districts to share secure gun storage information with each caregiver community.

The more school leaders who attend, the better equipped our districts will be to partner with families, strengthen awareness, and create safer school communities.

📅 Webinar: August 12, 10-11am
🔗 Register: bit.ly/SHSSWebinar812

Please email your own Michigan school district leaders* today and encourage them to join us next week. Together, parents and schools can make Michigan's Safe Homes, Safe Schools law work as intended—keeping children and families safer from unintentionally accessing fi****ms in the home, preventing child and teen su***de, and domestic gun violence, and protecting our communities from firearm trauma.

*Please note the intended audience for this webinar is intended for specific school admins & SROs only. If you are a community member who would like to know more about this law or get involved, please contact [email protected]

08/05/2026

Congratulations to Jocelyn Benson on winning the Democratic nomination for Governor of Michigan!

At Michigan Parent Alliance for Safe Schools, we believe Michigan’s future depends on the strength of our public schools. Tonight’s victory is significant because Secretary Benson has put forward one of the most comprehensive, student-centered education visions we’ve seen from a gubernatorial candidate in years.
Benson is building on the tremendous progress made under Governor Gretchen Whitmer, whose administration has made historic investments in public education, including higher foundation funding, universal school meals, expanded Pre-K, literacy initiatives, mental health supports, tutoring, and stronger investments in our students and educators.

Secretary Benson’s plan takes that momentum and asks, “What’s next?”

What stands out to us is that this is not a collection of political slogans. It is a systems approach to improving public education from birth through graduation and beyond.

We especially appreciate that her plan:

• Focuses relentlessly on literacy and ensuring every child can read by third grade.

• Prioritizes recruiting, paying, supporting, and retaining outstanding teachers and school support staff because great schools begin with great educators.

• Recognizes that educational success starts long before kindergarten by expanding access to high quality childcare and Pre-K.

• Invests in wraparound services, mental health, career counseling, after school opportunities, and family supports because learning does not happen in isolation.

• Places students with disabilities and special education at the center of policy by improving funding, accountability, advocacy, and outcomes.

• Calls for funding schools based on student needs rather than one size fits all formulas while protecting the School Aid Fund for its intended purpose.

• Expands career and technical education, apprenticeships, and real world learning opportunities so every student has multiple pathways to success.

• Understands that Michigan’s education system works best when state leaders, ISDs, local districts, educators, parents, and communities work together rather than against one another.

• Emphasizes transparency, accountability, data driven decision making, and continuous improvement instead of political theater.

Perhaps most importantly, this plan reflects something we have long believed.

Public education is not merely another government program. It is the foundation of our economy, our democracy, our communities, and the opportunities we create for every child.

Secretary Benson has the opportunity to build on the strong foundation Governor Whitmer has established and take Michigan’s public schools to the next level. Her vision is comprehensive, practical, and centered on students. It invests in educators, strengthens early learning, supports families, modernizes school funding, expands career pathways, and recognizes that every child deserves access to an excellent public education, regardless of where they live.

Congratulations again to Secretary Jocelyn Benson on tonight’s victory. We look forward to seeing her continue building on Governor Whitmer’s legacy and working to make Michigan’s public schools among the very best in the nation. From early childhood through graduation, her plan recognizes that investing in children is one of the smartest investments a state can make, and we are looking forward to hearing the plans from the other candidate.

07/31/2026

As the early years of the COVID pandemic are in the news again, we wanted to reshare this important reminder. Public health officials, medical professionals, and other essential workers who sacrificed and risked their lives are respected heroes and should be treated as such by society.

We have severely undercounted the number of COVID deaths, scientists say

07/16/2026

Free masks available in Detroit.

07/16/2026

A reminder that if you can't avoid being outside, a mask (go for high-quality masks like a KN – 94 or an N 95, or even a respirator if you can, but any mask will help filter the smoke particles) will help protect your lungs from damage when the air quality are at dangerous levels.

Stay safe, Michigan families!


Michigan air quality is impacted by wildfire smoke this week. Everyone should take precautions to protect your and your family’s health.

Monitor your local air quality at AirNow.gov and follow the guidance for everyone and schools, daycares and outside activities at EH.michigan.gov/WildfireSmoke-Health.