NC bill would help parents remove school leaders, prosecute librarians
Republican state lawmakers released an extensive bill to give parents more authority over their children’s education, making it easier for them to access instructional materials, prosecute librarians and remove superintendents.
The bill also requires schools to inform parents if their child begins identifying as a different gender — a measure that was already included in the legislature’s proposed Parents’ Bill of Rights. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed that last week, though an override is likely by the Republican supermajority.
Democrats denounced the new proposal early on Wednesday, with Rep. Julie von Haefen saying it “claims to give rights to parents, but it’s just a license for book banning committees to run rampant and groups like Moms for Liberty to get superintendents fired.”
Lawmakers were initially scheduled to hear the bill in the House Education Committee on Wednesday afternoon, but it was removed from the calendar shortly before the meeting began.
Rep. John Torbett, the chair of the committee, said the bill was pulled because members “had not had the adequate time to kind of review and see what impact it does.”
“We’re gonna come back on it, we’re in no big hurry,” he said.
It’s unclear how much support the plan would receive if it came to a floor vote. The bill is an overhaul of an existing piece of legislation that previously dealt mostly with other topics.
Under the new bill, parents would be given a new legal recourse for encroachments on their “fundamental right to parent,” which the bill defines as “the liberty of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of the parent’s child.”
Alleged violations of this right could be taken to local school boards and appealed to superior courts. Successful plaintiffs would receive a minimum of $5,000 in damages in addition to attorneys’ fees.
Five successful affidavits from parents claiming a violation of this right would be grounds for terminating a superintendent’s contract. If a board chooses not to fire the superintendent after receiving five affidavits, the superintendent’s salary would automatically be reduced “in an amount equal to the State funds provided for that salary.”
“If you allow that kind of bad actor to promulgate throughout your system and you do it five times, there’s a pattern there so chances are you need to work somewhere else,” said Torbett, a Gaston County Republican.
Public libraries would be required to give parents access to information about what books their child checked out and to keep “material harmful to minors” in an age-restricted section. The bill would also make it easier to prosecute librarians for violating this provision.
Parents in Wake County have previously attempted to prosecute schools for providing students with LGBTQ+-themed books they called obscene. The district attorney declined to file any criminal charges.
In addition, the bill would:
- Clarify that minors have no authority to consent to mental health treatment unless they believe themselves to be a danger to themselves or others.
- Prohibit instruction on gender identity, sexual activity and sexuality in fourth and fifth grade.
- Make it easier for parents to get their child reassigned to a different school.
- Create a new process for adopting library books, giving more opportunity for parental review and objections.
- Require parental consent for participation in extracurricular activities.
- State that charter schools are not state actors, potentially giving them more leeway to institute dress codes.
The bill’s text and summary are posted online.
This story was originally published July 12, 2023 at 12:01 PM with the headline "NC bill would help parents remove school leaders, prosecute librarians."
