North Carolina state superintendent candidate Michele Morrow has made protecting students central to her campaign.
The Republican home-school mother running to oversee the state’s public school system has assembled a 10-person school safety advisory board, pledged to rid schools of pedophiles and vowed to address gun violence by putting in place added security measures.
“North Carolina schools should be the safest buildings in the state,” Morrow’s campaign website says.
But in a 2023 social media post, Morrow offered an unorthodox solution to prevent kids from bringing guns to school: Installing video cameras inside restrooms.
Morrow wrote on X, “My plan to stop people having guns in schools. 1. Controlled entry and exit doors (SRO’s and metal detectors) 2. Video surveillance in classrooms, hallways and bathrooms 3. Immediate expulsion for the remainder of the year for any violations 4. Charge parents if it is their gun.”
In a statement this month, Morrow said she wasn’t calling for surveillance inside of restrooms. Rather, she said she wants them installed outside of bathrooms.
“The safety of our students is a top priority of mine,” Morrow said in a statement. “Many families have shared with me that their children are afraid to go into the bathroom at school, leaving many to go the entire school day without using the bathroom. Surveying who goes in and out of the bathroom just like we do at other points of entry will help keep our students safe.”
But the tweet itself called for video surveillance inside of bathrooms. That stands in contrast to fears Morrow has consistently voiced about students being preyed upon or sexually exploited.
During her primary campaign against Republican incumbent Catherine Truitt, Morrow had a dedicated section of her website warning of “PEDOPHILES IN NC CLASSROOMS,” arguing Truitt hadn’t done enough to prevent child predators from working in classrooms.
In a February interview with Charlotte talk radio host Brett Jensen, Truitt accused Morrow of engaging in “outright lies.”
Morrow has also warned of children being sexualized. In a video compilation a Morrow critic posted to YouTube in 2022, Morrow said, “Since we now live completely in this need for adrenaline rush, this need for constant sexual gratification, now we’re moving into pedophilia. Do you understand this pattern? It is only a matter of time until people start saying, ‘I mean, how can you put an age on love?’”
Morrow has since sought to present herself as the lone policy-oriented candidate in the race.
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During a March 25 appearance on a show hosted by Steve Bannon, former President Donald Trump’s ex-chief strategist now serving a four-month jail sentence for defying a congressional subpoena, Morrow said her Democratic critics were unserious on the issue of school safety.
“The only thing that the left has is to slander,” Morrow said. “They don’t want to hear solutions. They don’t want people to hear how we’re going to actually get back to safety in our schools and academic excellence and fiscal sanity, so they must drown out the solution-minded people.”
Mo Green, the Democrat and former superintendent of Guilford County Schools running against Morrow, outlined a four-pronged approach to address school safety in an interview.
Green called for improving student mental health, building positive relationships between students and law enforcement, evaluating facilities and tools to ensure students’ physical well-being and creating a positive overall school climate through character development initiatives.
Green called Morrow’s idea of installing security cameras in school restrooms “extreme,” said it raises “deep concerns” and noted he isn’t aware of any school district that operates in such a way. He added that people shouldn’t trust Morrow on the issue of student safety because she’s previously called for arming teachers, executions of political leaders and labeled public schools as “indoctrination centers.”
“This is not the kind of person that we want leading our safety efforts,” Green said.
Bryan Anderson is a freelance reporter who most recently covered elections, voting access, and state government for WRAL-TV. He previously reported for the Associated Press and The News & Observer. You can subscribe to his newsletter here.