The 2023-24 school year is coming to a close, and this year was filled with unique challenges for North Carolina school administrators, educators and students. Between new anti-LGBTQ+ laws targeting curricula and students’ privacy to book bans and school board meeting fiascos, this academic year was unlike any other.
QNotes has created a timeline of what’s happened with North Carolina schools over the last nine months or so and how students have been impacted by legislation.
General Assembly Overrides Veto on Three Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills
Before the school year even started, the General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto on three bills: a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, a policy barring trans girls from competing on women’s sports teams in their schools and a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” forbidding instruction related to gender identity and sexuality in grades K- 4 and requiring notification of parents when students want to change their names or pronouns.
Callum Bradford, a trans man from Chapel Hill who was a high school student at the time of the veto override, spoke to QNotes before the legislature convened. He said these laws set a precedent others should be concerned about.
“No matter how much people think that these bills are helping people, they are hurting people,” he said. “They hurt people like me [and] people not like me. These bills are hurting everyone, and it’s not okay.”
House Minority Leader Robert Reives II also spoke with QNotes in the hours leading up to the overturn of Cooper’s veto. He confirmed that what is happening across the country with policies targeting LGBTQ+ folks should be a warning sign for everyone.
“What you will see, in not just these bills, is a continual attack on minority groups. When you do that, what tends to happen is that a lot of us as minority groups almost kind of withdraw within ourselves,” Reives explained. “The only way that we get things changed is if we come together as a collective, and that collective is actually a majority. That collective can help make the kind of change that we want to see. But something that we’ve got to do, as a minority party, is to make people understand that.”
CMS Wants Parents’ Signatures on ‘Student Information Form’
In accordance with the Parents’ Bill of Rights, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools asked parents to sign an online document identified as a “Student Information Form” (SIF). The questionnaire specifically asked parents to identify their child’s pronouns, confirm whether or not their child can take part in “reproductive health” education classes and approve for their children to take part in what is vaguely described as “protected student information surveys.”
QNotes spoke to CMS parent Sarah Castleman, who shared concerns about the forms the district sent.
“They [the schools] want pronouns, because they want proof at some point during the school year in case a child decides to change pronouns or change names,” she says. “How many kids are out there that might be going through this right now and want to change their name and they don’t live in a safe environment, which is why they don’t come out at home? It scares me because those kids that obviously are not safe at home, they’re going to be outed to their parents, and that just puts them in an even more unsafe environment.”
LGBTQ+ Organizations Work to Support Queer Students in Schools
Several community organizations, including PFLAG and Time Out Youth, have worked to help provide resources for LGBTQ+ students after the Parents’ Bill of Rights was passed and implemented.
PFLAG hosts workshops and peer support groups to educate loved ones of LGBTQ+ identifying people to help them learn about the community and what allyship looks like. Time Out Youth provides a wide array of resources for teachers and students alike, from Gay-Straight Alliances and Gender & Sexuality Alliance support to workshops for teachers and school staff.
Former Executive Director of PFLAG Charlotte Karen Graci said students aren’t the only ones who benefit from the support of organizations like PFLAG or Time Out Youth.
“I think educators by nature, they’re drawn to learning and so we know whenever we walk into any room, we have allies, we have LGBTQ+ community members, and we have a few that are like ‘I’m not having this conversation. Why am I here?’ And it’s all okay,” Graci said. “The goal always is to heighten education, awareness and visibility.”
Book Bans Across the State
According to PEN America — a nonprofit advocacy group which tracks book challenges and bans in the U.S. — almost 60 different books were banned in schools across North Carolina.
The special committee in Charlotte was tasked with determining the fate of three books and whether they would be banned from school libraries. One book was banned — “A Court of Frost and Starlight” by Sarah J. Maas — which was argued by critics and committee members as being filled with “adult themes and sexual content.”
On the other side of the state in Johnston County, the school board took more extreme action: All books discussing gender identity were banned and teachers were prohibited from answering questions from students about that and other LGBTQ+ topics.
“If there is a question that’s questionable for the principals, I would instruct the staff to actually say ‘thank you for that question and I will be able to give you a response after I check with your parents or the principal,’” said Katie Cornetto, Johnston County’s school board attorney. “That would be my recommendation until we get further clarity about the law.”
The Fight for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Schools
New Hanover County’s school board made state headlines after voting to disband the Equity, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee at their December meeting, which has since sparked backlash from the area’s LGBTQ+ community.
The committee’s chair, Republican school board member Melissa Mason, signed an “Education Over Indoctrination Pledge” when she ran for office, vowing to “remove 100 percent” of CRT (Critical Race Theory), SEL (Social and Emotional Learning), DEI and “woke indoctrination” from the curriculum and administration.
Democratic school board member and fellow committee member Hugh McManus said he believed Mason volunteered to chair the DEI committee just to disband it. He called for Mason to resign as chair, to which she refused.
“You were placed there to implode [DEI] and you knew that from the beginning,” McManus said.
LGBTQ+ Organizations File Title IX Complaint Over ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’
LGBTQ+ organizations from Asheville filed a complaint against the Buncombe County Board of Education in response to policies passed to adhere to the state’s new “Parents’ Bill of Rights.”
The complaint, filed by the Buncombe County Title IX coordinator, alleges the policies enforced by the Parents’ Bill of Rights singles out LGBTQ+ students, stigmatizing and alienating them from their heterosexual or cisgender counterparts.
“SB49 … is a cruel attempt to stigmatize and marginalize LGBTQ children, faculty and their families in the state,” PFLAG Asheville Board member KT Morales said. “The policies passed recently in the Buncombe County School Board violate our children’s rights to a safe and non-discriminatory environment in schools.
“Asheville PFLAG will continue to advocate alongside the Campaign for Southern Equality and Youth OUTright to ensure the civil rights of our families are upheld.”
Some Schools Decided to Ignore SB 49 Provisions
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools decided to not create a protocol which would disclose students’ sexual orientation and preferred pronouns and names to parents. The board also said it wouldn’t create a policy barring the instruction of gender identity and sexuality in its elementary schools.
“We’re not looking to be contrary or get into any kind of struggle with legislators or anybody else, and we hope that won’t happen,” said Board Chair George Griffin told the newspaper Friday. “Anytime you go up against a regulation or a law, you run the risk of people not being happy about that.”
Some Republican legislators responded to CHCCS’ decision, saying the General Assembly should penalize the school districts who refuse to comply with all provisions of SB 49.
“A supermajority voted for this legislation,” North Carolina Senate Majority Whip Jim Perry, a Lenoir County Republican, stated in a post on X. “I look forward to addressing this lawless behavior in the short session. This presents a great opportunity to see where others stand on law and order.” ::