The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled last week that a lawsuit against Charlotte Latin School can proceed, overturning lower court decisions that had dismissed the case.
Parents Nicole and Doug Turpin filed the lawsuit in 2022. They allege that Charlotte Latin introduced politically charged discussions of race and gender into its curriculum following the death of George Floyd in 2020.
According to the lawsuit, the Turpins objected to those changes, creating a parent group called Refocus Latin. They presented their concerns to the school’s board of trustees. But at a later meeting with school administrators, administrators accused the group of displaying a PowerPoint to the board that included racist statements – a claim that the Turpins have denied.
The school expelled the Turpins’ children from the school at the end of that meeting, citing its Enrollment Agreement and Parent-School Partnership. That allows it to terminate a student’s enrollment if it determines a working relationship with their parents or guardians is impossible.
The state Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the case. Instead, it overturned lower court rulings that dismissed the lawsuit for failing to state a claim.
The 5-2 majority conceded that the Turpins’ initial complaint included 60 pages of allegations that “occasionally resemble a press release more than a legal filing.” The majority says this “likely complicated the lower courts’ review because portions of the complaint assert claims or legal theories that are meritless as a matter of law and were properly dismissed.”
But ultimately, the court believed the Turpins alleged a “narrow set of facts” that properly state claims for breach of contract, fraud, unfair and deceptive trade practices and defamation.
The ruling broke along party lines. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Allison Riggs wrote that the ruling would "open the door to litigation against all private schools."
“To the extent that the complaint alleges that any reason Charlotte Latin gave for the termination was pretext, and that the children’s enrollment was terminated because of ‘cancel culture,’ Charlotte Latin was allowed to do exactly that under the broad discretion it retained under the contract,” Riggs wrote.
Charlotte Latin did not respond to a request for comment. The school has argued that it was within its rights to expel the students based on its contract with parents.
