Trustee vows to stay on after apparent threat at Grosse Pointe school board meeting

A Grosse Pointe Schools trustee is defiant after receiving an apparent death threat during a March 31 school board meeting.

“Fortunate for you, I’m no Luigi,” local activist Ian Seaman said in a video clip posted to a local Facebook group. “But to some disgruntled teen with his or her father’s pistol or rifle, any of the other things you prefer in school other than rainbow flags, you might be a Brian Thompson.”

The comment was a reference to Luigi Mangione, who allegedly shot and killed UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City in December. Video shows Seaman wearing a backpack, as Mangione did during the shooting of Thompson. The audience applauded after Seaman's comments, the video shows.

Seaman's comments were directed at Trustee Sean Cotton, whose family previously owned hospitals in the region.

Seaman claimed to be upset over school policy on hanging gay pride flags in classrooms. Cotton noted that the Grosse Point Public School System's Policies & Guidelines document does not contain policies related to flags. He told Michigan Capitol Confidential he believes Seaman has been radicalized by political opposition whose "months of reckless demagoguery that used me as a boogeyman contributed directly to his actions and the threat he made against my life."

Cotton and other board members expressed shock after Seaman's statement.

“You don’t always have your life threatened right here, and that guy Ian Seaman, he absolutely just did threaten my life,” Cotton told the assembled crowd. “From my exercising representative government and democracy and the First Amendment, that’s pretty disconcerting.”

After ensuring that Seaman had left the location, Cotton filed a report with the Grosse Pointe Farms police department, he told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email.

“While he did not explicitly mention my background in healthcare, it is clear he had done his homework, and I believe he likely knew of my former role,” Cotton said. “He ranted about my ownership of our community’s local newspaper, my political donations, and was clearly very angry and agitated about my participation in the democratic process.”

The death threat won’t stop him from serving the school district, the alumnus of Grosse Pointe South Class of ‘95 said.

“While the incident was unsettling, it will not deter me from continuing to serve the Grosse Pointe community,” Cotton said. “I sought this role to help preserve and strengthen our public schools, championing academic excellence, fiscal responsibility, and long-term stability. That mission remains as important to me today as ever.”

In a phone intereview with CapCon, Seaman countered that the statement was intended to draw attention to the risks of extremism and gun violence. The comment wasn’t a threat, he said, and the board should be more respectful of public commenters.

“I explicitly said I would never do that,” Seaman said. “I am not (Mangione). But if we keep not listening to people and what they need, we are in an environment where someone could do something drastic. That should be a scary thought for everyone.”

The threat typifies extreme views held by many transgender activists, Matthew J. Wilk, president of Get Kids Back to School Inc, told CapCon.

“What you saw Monday at the school board meeting was appalling but sadly predictable,” Wilk said in a text message. “Progressive political organizations have been pushing that a reversion to a traditional view of sex, one that has been understood on this planet for thousands of years, is somehow ‘violence’ against those with gender dysphoria. It isn’t.”

He called on those in the crowd who applauded the death threat to “knock it off before someone tragically acts on their rhetoric.”

The Office of the Attorney General can’t determine whether a real threat was made, said Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Press Secretary Daniel Wimmer in an email to CapCon.

“Whether a threat was effectuated would require some degree of investigation that I am unable to conduct, via email as the press secretary for the department,” Wimmer wrote. “If you or anyone else believe a crime has been committed, we would encourage you to contact local law enforcement or your nearest Michigan State Police post.”

Cotton said public servants must remain strong in the face of intimidation.

“I believe deeply in democracy and in the importance of representative government,” Cotton told CapCon. “These are the bedrock principles of our nation. To serve in an elected role is both an honor and a responsibility. Threats and intimidation cannot be allowed to silence public servants or any citizen who chooses to participate in civic life.”

Correction: This article was updated after publication to clarify Grosse Pointe Public School System policies.