Petition to Remove Stephanie Lange from Chippewa Valley Schools

We, the undersigned parents, residents, taxpayers, and community members, are calling for the immediate review and removal of Stephanie Lange from her position within Chippewa Valley Schools.

This petition is not about political party affiliation or personal disagreement. It is about professionalism, public trust, appropriate boundaries, district neutrality, parental transparency, and the responsibility entrusted to individuals working in sensitive student-facing leadership roles involving minors.

For over a year, parents and community members have brought concerns to the Board of Education. Many believe those concerns involving district policies, outside activism, controversial issues, conflicts of interest, professionalism, and student-facing programming have been ignored or inadequately addressed.

Major Community Concerns

This petition is rooted not only in public concern, but in multiple Chippewa Valley Schools bylaws and policies involving staff ethics, conflicts of interest, outside activities, controversial issues, special interest groups, use of district affiliation and property, professionalism, impartiality, and public trust.

Community members believe Stephanie Lange’s conduct, outside organizational involvement, and public activities raise serious concerns under policies including PO3210, PO3231, PO3110, PO4110, PO4231, PO2240, PO9700, PO9700.01, and the District’s social networking procedures.

1. Inappropriate Social Media Conduct

Community members became aware of social media activity in which Stephanie Lange publicly expressed disappointment that the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump failed.

Regardless of political beliefs, statements minimizing or expressing disappointment over political violence are deeply inappropriate for a public-school employee serving in sensitive student-facing leadership roles.

Parents and community members believe this conduct raises serious concerns under Board Policy PO3210 regarding Staff Ethics, as well as the District’s social networking procedures, which require employees to exercise good judgment, maintain professionalism online, and avoid conduct that reflects poorly on the employee or the District.

2. Promotion of Outside Identity-Based Organizations While Representing the District

Additional concerns arose after video surfaced allegedly showing Stephanie Lange, while visibly representing Chippewa Valley Schools at Dakota High School, promoting an outside organization connected to transgender-focused youth programming involving minors.

Community members have raised concerns regarding potential violations of Board Policies PO3231, PO9700, and PO9700.01, including concerns involving:

Use of district affiliation while promoting outside organizations.
Use of district property or district representation connected to outside advocacy organizations.
Promotion of special interest groups involving minors.
Conduct inconsistent with district neutrality.
Blurred professional boundaries involving student influence and identity-based advocacy.

Board Policy PO9700 states that students, staff members, and district facilities are not to be used for advertising or promoting the interests of nonschool organizations without approval.

3. Outside Leadership Roles, Organizational Overlap, and Conflict-of-Interest Concerns

Public records identify Stephanie Lange as President of Camp Talahi Retreat and Nature Center.

Camp Talahi publicly describes portions of its programming as being created and run “by transgender adults for transgender youth,” in partnership with organizations including The Trevor Project and Transcend the Binary.

Additional publicly available information reflects involvement with multiple outside LGBTQ and transgender-focused organizations, presentations, youth programming initiatives, workshops, and community partnerships connected to minors.

Community members have raised serious concerns regarding the extent of overlap between these outside leadership and advocacy roles and Stephanie Lange’s district responsibilities involving vulnerable students, mental health initiatives, external referrals, sex education curriculum, and student assistance programming.

Parents are asking reasonable questions:

Were these outside leadership roles and affiliations fully disclosed to the district?
Was the district aware of the extent of outside organizational involvement connected to youth identity-based programming?
Were safeguards established to prevent blurred professional boundaries between outside activism and public-school responsibilities?
Was district affiliation, district property, or district influence used in connection with outside organizations or programming?
Were conflicts or appearances of impropriety reviewed by district leadership?

Policies PO3110 and PO4110 prohibit employees from engaging in activities that create real or apparent conflicts of interest or raise reasonable questions regarding impartiality and professional conduct.

Policies PO3231 and PO4231 warn against outside associations or activities that may conflict with district interests or negatively impact employee effectiveness within the school system.

4. Concerns Regarding Gender Ideology, Controversial Issues, and Schools

Many parents believe schools are increasingly moving away from academic priorities and instead pushing ideological agendas involving gender identity onto impressionable children.

Board Policy PO2240 regarding Controversial Issues states that controversial topics should not be used to indoctrinate or persuade students toward a particular point of view and should instead be approached with neutrality and scholarly inquiry.

Parents and community members are questioning whether those standards are being properly followed when district personnel simultaneously oversee student-facing programs while also maintaining extensive involvement in outside transgender and identity-based youth organizations.

Parents are tired of political activism, identity-based ideology, and controversial social issues overshadowing academics.

Schools should focus on reading, writing, mathematics, science, skilled trades, and preparing students for successful futures.

5. Broader Compliance and Oversight Concerns

Community members have also raised concerns regarding compliance with Michigan laws and oversight requirements involving the Sex Education Advisory Board and reproductive health instruction.

At prior board meetings, even board members themselves acknowledged that some of the concerns raised could potentially involve violations while expressing uncertainty regarding the governing laws and rules.

This has only increased public concern regarding oversight, accountability, professionalism, and transparency within the district.

Our Request

We respectfully call upon the Chippewa Valley Schools Board of Education to:

Ensure a full, transparent, impartial, and publicly accountable review of Stephanie Lange’s conduct, outside affiliations, district policy compliance, professional boundaries, and conflicts of interest involving student-facing responsibilities.
Review whether district policies, ethics standards, bylaws, employee conduct expectations, controversial issue policies, conflict-of-interest provisions, and district professionalism standards were violated.
Restore transparency and public trust regarding student-facing programming, outside organizational involvement, ideological activism within public schools, and the appropriate professional boundaries expected of district personnel.
Take immediate and meaningful corrective action necessary to restore accountability, professionalism, district neutrality, and community confidence within Chippewa Valley Schools.

Given the seriousness of these concerns, the apparent pattern of policy concerns and alleged violations, the erosion of public trust, and the importance of maintaining the highest professional standards for employees working with vulnerable minors, we respectfully call upon the Chippewa Valley Schools Board of Education to terminate Stephanie Lange’s employment with the district.

We further request that this matter not be resolved through reassignment, administrative leave, transfer to another position, or any other internal administrative action that would allow continued employment within the district.

The community deserves meaningful accountability, transparency, and the restoration of public trust.

Public trust matters.
Professional boundaries matter.
Parental rights matter.

We, the undersigned, call on Chippewa Valley Schools to act accordingly.