Teachers at Gull Lake Community Schools promote communism and LGBTQ issues on social media

Parents Defending Education received documentation of comments made by district staff of Gull Lake Community Schools in Michigan. The documentation showed an image of an email that an “AP English Language and Composition” teacher sent. This teacher had the pronouns “He/Him” in his email signature and the description “Gull Lake Gender and Sexuality Alliance Advisor.” The school district’s website lists the teacher as an English instructor. The documentation showed multiple posts from the teacher appearing to outright support communism.

In one post, the teacher shared a photo of himself saying “Vote, Bitch” with the text: “Yes, I wore my fully-automated-luxury-gay-space-communism shirt.” Another post had the text “The perfect political compass doesn’t ex…” with a sign stating “Vote Communist.” Another post featured an image of Karl Marx standing on platforms that featured the words “Marxism,” “Class Consciousness,” and “Freedom.” The image showed Karl Marx saving Uncle Sam from a swamp that featured the words “Capitalism,” “Systemic Racism,” and “Fascism.” The documentation also showed the teacher’s Facebook profile banner set to an image of the Supreme Court building burning.

The documentation provided a flyer promoting a “Gender & Sexuality Club.” The description of the GSA club states: “Hang out and learn with different people regardless of your identity.” The teacher making communism posts on social media is listed as a “Co-Advisor” on the flyer.

A first grade teacher in the district shared an image on Twitter that stated: “Elementary and middle schools that fail to or refuse to carry books with LGBT characters are guilty of educational malpractice. These books must not be ghosted. Kids must have access to these books. Our existence is not controversial. Kids –all kids– need to know that.” The teacher also retweeted the following statement: “Anti-racist education IS patriotic education. #1619Project.”

PDE investigated the teacher’s Twitter activity and found that she often posts in support of teaching students about LGBTQ issues. In late November 2022, she retweeted a post that appeared to attack Florida’s parental rights law. On November 22, she posted a message critical of Thanksgiving: “You can have your students practice gratitude AND teach the true history of Thanksgiving.” The teacher also has the pronouns “she/her” in her Twitter bio.

In another tweet on May 19, 2022, she appeared to explain that she taught her first grade students why the idea of equity is better than equality. On May 15, she posted an image that stated numerous times: “This is why we need antibias and antiracism education.”

In another retweet shown in the documentation, a fifth grade teacher within the district shared a post that stated: “I find myself hesitant to choose read aloud books that could lead to pushback rn. And, yet, I have an immense amount of straight, white privilege. And I need to do what’s right for kids.”

The documentation also showed an image posted on Facebook from Board of Education member Jeff Brown from August 22, 2020. The image states “Black Lives Matter” with “Biden – Harris” around the image.