“If you are concerned that your child is seeing the colors of the rainbow, I would suggest sending them with tinted sunglasses,” a school board member derisively told him after the father complained about an abundance of pride flags in his child’s school.
By Catholics for Catholics
Faced against all the vast forces of a public school system that flagrantly imposes rainbow and transgender flags in his child’s school, Gary Shane Pruitt has decided he will not go quietly into the night—he will not vanish without a fight.
Pruitt, a father from Michigan, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Grosse Pointe Public School System, contending that the district hurled a campaign of “constitutional retaliation” after he publicly complained about the display of rainbow and transgender flags inside his child’s middle school.
The complaint, according to a story by The Daily Wire, argues the district violated his First Amendment rights by issuing a “no-trespass” order banning him from school property. According to the lawsuit, the contention began in September 2024 when Pruitt attended a back-to-school night at Parcells Middle School and noticed an excess of pride flags.
When he made known his objections to school officials, the complaint alleges he came across flippant shrugs. It also cites a comment attributed to school board member Valerie St. John: “If you are concerned that your child is seeing the colors of the rainbow, I would suggest sending them with tinted sunglasses so they aren’t subjected to the full spectrum.”
Pruitt later returned to the school after hours, which the lawsuit claims was done with permission, and recorded video of the exhibitions. He posted the footage to a parent Facebook group with verbal commentary criticizing the flags as “radical programming” and a “display of sexuality” pushed by “groomer teachers,” as Michigan News Source reported.
In an email to parents, Principal Jason Wesley said the video contained “no threatening content” and was “political in nature.”
BREAKING: Michigan father Gary Shane Pruitt is SUING @GPSchools after they filed a "no-trespass" order against him for exposing a giant PRIDE Flag hanging inside the school.
— ᴄʜʀɪsᴛᴏᴘʜᴇʀ ᴀʀɴᴇʟʟ (@MrChrisArnell) March 23, 2026
The school is reportedly framing Pruitt as a "threat," has BANNED him from scho… pic.twitter.com/dCoVfqak24
The center of the legal battle focuses on whether a public school district can constrict a parent’s access to school property based on speech made off campus. The complaint stressed that Pruitt’s video was recorded after school hours with permission from administrators, and the commentary was posted on a private Facebook page—not delivered during a school function.
“The chilling effect that would result if parents can be banned from school property for merely criticizing the school or its board is self-evident,” the filing states. “It is not hard to imagine all of the abuses of power that could be committed by the state if public schools are permitted to punish any speech by any parent, at any time, on any device, and at any location, so long as the school found the speech to be ‘offensive.’”
The lawsuit also contends that the altercation has affected Pruitt’s child, claiming the student has been “stigmatized, ridiculed, and harassed” by other school mates after the district’s actions.
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