North Carolina Lawmakers Clash With School District Over Parental Rights and LGBTQ Book List

North Carolina lawmakers put Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools on the defensive Wednesday during a tense oversight hearing that quickly escalated into a full-blown confrontation over parental-rights laws and LGBTQ-themed materials available to young students.

According to Fox News, the district’s top officials—School Board Chair George Griffin and Superintendent Rodney Trice—were summoned before the House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform to explain how they are complying with Senate Bill 49, the Parents’ Bill of Rights. 

The law restricts classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation through fourth grade and requires schools to notify parents of any name or pronoun changes, health-related developments, or LGBTQ-related curriculum.

In written testimony submitted beforehand, district leaders insisted they were fully compliant.

But lawmakers immediately challenged that claim, pointing to Griffin’s previous public statements calling the law “discriminatory” and suggesting the district did not intend to enforce all of its provisions.

WRAL reported that Griffin had emailed staff in early 2024, acknowledging that the district adopted the law as policy but intentionally omitted sections involving pronoun-change notifications and classroom instruction rules.

Those omissions drew sharp criticism.

State House Majority Leader Brenden Jones did not mince words.

“You’re here today because you chose to wage war against the law,” Jones told the officials. “This wasn’t passive resistance. It was a coordinated middle finger to this legislature and every parent in your district.”