Cabarrus schools hit with 2nd lawsuit over transgender students in bathrooms
Cabarrus County Schools is facing yet another lawsuit over its handling of transgender students and school bathrooms.
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The latest federal complaint was filed Friday by a Cabarrus father and America First Legal, just one week after three Cox Mill High School students sued the district over restroom and locker room access. It also comes as the U.S. Department of Education separately investigates the district’s practices under Title IX. This time, though, the fight is less about who can use which bathroom and more about what schools are required to tell parents.
“This case is a simple scenario of a father attempting to protect his children,” America First Legal senior counsel Nick Barry said in a news release. “School officials dodging common-sense questions from parents will not be tolerated.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Brandon Matthews, whose daughter is entering fourth grade at Mount Pleasant Elementary School and whose son is entering his senior year at Mount Pleasant High School. It names the Cabarrus County Board of Education, Superintendent John Kopicki and the principals of both schools as defendants.
Matthews says he asked both schools in May to notify him if transgender students would be allowed to use the same sex-segregated bathrooms or locker rooms as his children.
According to the complaint, Matthews did not ask school officials to identify any particular student. Instead, he wanted to know whether a student of the opposite biological sex was using or might be allowed to use those facilities so he could decide whether to request another arrangement for his children or consider other schooling options.
Both principals responded June 8 with nearly identical messages.
They told Matthews that matters involving individual students are confidential and that the schools could not confirm, disclose or provide advance notice about the “status, identity or accommodations of any particular student.” They also invited Matthews to contact them if his children had concerns about a specific situation.
Matthews argues that response was not enough. The lawsuit says the district’s refusal interferes with his religious beliefs and his constitutional right to direct his children’s upbringing and education.
America First Legal is relying in part on a recent U.S. Supreme Court parental-rights ruling, Mahmoud v. Taylor. That case involved parents who objected on religious grounds to LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks being used in public school classrooms. The Supreme Court ruled parents were entitled to notice and an opportunity to excuse their children from instruction that substantially burdened their religious exercise.
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The Cabarrus lawsuit asks the court to apply that reasoning to bathrooms and locker rooms.
The district has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit. The Charlotte Observer contacted the school district for comment.
America First Legal also filed a motion asking the judge to require Cabarrus to tell Matthews what policies and practices govern bathroom and locker room access at his children’s schools and whether students of the opposite biological sex are permitted to use those facilities.
The full lawsuit asks for an order requiring the district to give parents advance notice when its policies allow that kind of access and provide a “meaningful opportunity to opt out.” Matthews is also seeking damages and attorneys’ fees.
The case is the second lawsuit America First Legal has filed against Cabarrus County Schools in a week.
In the first, three anonymous 17-year-old Cox Mill High School students sued over the district’s handling of transgender access to girls’ restrooms, locker rooms and changing areas. That lawsuit argues the district should no longer rely on a 2020 Fourth Circuit ruling that protects transgender students’ bathroom access.
Both lawsuits arrive as Cabarrus is already under scrutiny from the federal government. The U.S. Department of Education opened a Title IX investigation into the district this summer after complaints about transgender students’ access to girls’ facilities.
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