Lawmakers grill Chapel Hill-Carrboro school officials on Parents' Bill of Rights compliance
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Officials from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools told lawmakers they're complying with the state's "Parents' Bill of Rights," even after Republican legislators during a hearing in Raleigh on Wednesday questioned earlier resistance to parts of the law.
Why it matters: Like several Republican-led states, North Carolina passed a law in 2023 more strictly defining how parents are involved with students' education and health, such as a requirement that staff notify parents if a student changes their name or pronoun in a classroom.
- It also banned instruction about gender identity or sexuality in kindergarten through fourth grade.
Driving the news: The hearing was prompted by a video posted online of the school district's chairman, George Griffin, in 2024 calling the law discriminatory and saying how its board voted "to tell the General Assembly, 'No thanks, we are not doing this.'"
Zoom in: At the hearing on Wednesday, Republican state Rep. Brenden Jones and other lawmakers lambasted Griffin and Superintendent Rodney Trice for two hours about their past statements on the bill and said they believed they were ignoring the law.
- The lawmakers showed several exhibits of what they said showed the school district was flouting the law, including a letter from a parent saying her child was using a different name without their knowledge.
- Jones also brought up examples of books for young readers that discussed gender and sexuality, calling them trash and throwing them on the ground.
- Lawmakers threatened state funds for the district in the next session, though there have been no official complaints against Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools.
- "Let me remind you of something, no one in North Carolina is above the law, especially not a public official who holds the trust of our children," said Jones, a Republican from Tabor City.
The other side: Throughout the hearing, Jones and Griffin told lawmakers that Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools are in compliance with the law and denied that any of the books mentioned were recommended to students. They also said they hadn't seen the letter from the parent before.
- The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board did vote to adopt the policies in the Parents' Bill of Rights and directed its administration to develop guidance for staff to comply, WRAL reported.
- "When we began today, I was hoping to have an opportunity to make an opening statement, and part of it was going to be to apologize for any misunderstanding that my comments may have caused," Griffin said.
What they're saying: As the district's testimony showed, CHCCS is in compliance with the law, spokesperson Andy Jenks said in an email after the hearing. "Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools is committed to parental involvement in everything we do."