Michigan School District Charges Mom nearly $50,000 for information request
What the mom is asking for from the district
A Saginaw County mother is raising concerns about transparency from local school officials after learning that a substitute teacher charged with disturbing crimes involving chil-ren had worked in multiple districts across the region.
Christina Licht, whose son attends the Millet Learning Center in Saginaw County, said she first learned about the situation through a joint email sent to parents by the Saginaw Intermediate School District and several local districts, including Bridgeport, Carrollton, Saginaw, Swan Valley and Freeland.
The message informed families that a substitute teacher had been arrested after authorities allegedly discovered disturbing photos involving children on his phone. Officials later determined the man had worked as a substitute in several area schools.
Licht said the news was especially alarming because her son attends a specialized program for students with disabilities.
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“Our son actually attends Millet Learning Center. It is a special needs school center based,” Licht said. “Our student specifically is nonverbal, autistic.”
Because her son cannot communicate verbally, Licht said it is difficult to determine whether he ever interacted with the substitute teacher.
“We can’t necessarily ask him, ‘Did you see this guy? Do you remember this guy?’”
She added that her son relies on caregivers for daily routines such as toileting, which made the situation particularly concerning.
“A substitute teacher could be helping him out in those kinds of sensitive scenarios,” Licht said.
After receiving the email, Licht said she contacted school officials to determine whether the substitute had ever been in her son’s classroom.
According to Licht, the school principal responded that records from the 2025 to 2026 school year showed “zero dates that substitute teacher was assigned to your student’s classroom while he was in attendance.”
However, Licht said the response also indicated the school did not have access to substitute records outside the current school year.
Seeking more clarity, Licht filed a Freedom of Information Act request. She said the response she received indicated that the substitute teacher had in fact been assigned to the learning center for one day while her child was in attendance.
“That’s where we talk about transparency,” Licht said. “Why should it have taken a FOIA?”
Licht said she also requested surveillance video from that day to determine whether the substitute had any interaction with her son. Because her son is nonverbal, she said video could help show whether he appeared comfortable or distressed around the individual.
School officials responded that the request would involve reviewing hundreds of hours of footage across multiple cameras.
According to Licht, the district estimated the cost to process the request at $48,588.40 and said it could take approximately 49 weeks to compile the records.
“That was exactly it. It was wow,” Licht said after receiving the estimate.
Licht said the situation has been frustrating because she believes parents should be able to receive basic information when safety concerns arise.
“You shouldn’t even need a FOIA,” she said. “They should want to be open.”
She emphasized that she is not accusing the substitute teacher of wrongdoing toward her son but said she simply wants information so she can determine whether additional support or counseling may be needed.
“We’re just really trying to understand what he might need,” Licht said.
Licht also said she believes stronger communication between schools and parents would help prevent situations like this from escalating.
“Just bringing it as in, sit down and talk. Recognize you’re a parent. I’m a parent. Let’s talk parent to parent.”
I reached out to the Saginaw Intermediate School District for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The fee they want to charge is insane. It will not take that long to go find it either. They did that so she would drop her inquiry. Because if her child was a victim they know they have a law suit on their hands. It would be easier for the school to just comply without making it an issue.
Should we be surprised? This seeming overlook on this teacher‘s background is not mere negligence, but more than likely intentional.
Public schools are nothing more than an indoctrination center to raise up worker bees, and to deliberately not teach children to think for themselves. Our founding fathers were all for publicly funded education, but they had no idea that Thomas Dewey and his buddies had a plan to take over the school systems with Marxist ideology.
Read the book The Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth, which is one of many books on the detailed takeover of the public school systems over the last hundred years.
Send your kids to private, classical schools or homeschool your kids.