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Last month on NC Political Tea’s podcast, Adam Guilette from Accuracy in Media didn’t mince words: “North Carolina, like any other states that banned (school-based) DEI, passed a bill with zero teeth to it.”
Ouch. That was the setup. That was the spark.
Perhaps, judging by what happened this week in Raleigh, that’s exactly why the GOP majority in the North Carolina Legislature is tightening oversight on how school districts implement SB49 — the 2023 Parents’ Bill of Rights [ [link removed] ].
Guilette’s point was straightforward and biting: NC’s so‑called protections on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and parental rights look good on paper, but they lack specific oversight and enforcement muscle.
So, House Republicans decided to do something about it.
Enter the Raleigh Grilling.
Yesterday, members of the NC House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform convened a hearing that put Chapel Hill‑Carrboro City Schools officials — including board chair George Griffin and Superintendent Rodney Trice — under intense scrutiny.
The reason?
Questions about whether the district has fully complied with state law after Griffin was recorded last year calling parts of SB49 “discriminatory” and saying the district should not follow those parts.
It was not your typical cordial committee exchange.
Lawmakers grilled the officials for more than two hours, repeatedly pushing them on why district policy intentionally left out two of the law’s most controversial provisions: notification to parents if a student changes names or pronouns at school, and strict limits on discussions of gender identity or sexuality for children in K‑4.
House Majority Leader Brenden Jones (R‑Columbus) — co‑chair of the committee — did not hide his frustration. At one point, he waved evidence and documents accusing Chapel Hill of issuing weak internal guidance instead of clear board policy so the optics of compliance could be maintained without actual enforcement. “This wasn’t passive resistance,” Jones said. “It was a coordinated middle finger to the legislature and to every parent in your district.”
That line landed. It also raised the stakes.
So what is the law?
SB49 [ [link removed] ], dubbed the Parents’ Bill of Rights, passed the legislature in 2023 and was designed to give parents more control over their kids’ education. It requires schools to notify parents about things like requested name or pronoun changes and restricts teaching about gender identity or sexuality through fourth grade — provisions passed over a gubernatorial veto and championed by conservative lawmakers as empowering families, not institutions.
Yet in Chapel Hill — where politics tends to run left of center — the school board initially refused to adopt those specific provisions. Instead of including them explicitly in formal policies, the district chose internal guidance for educators. That guidance, officials insisted, still ensured compliance “100%,” even if the language wasn’t in the policy books.
Cue more questions.
So are they complying? That’s the billion‑dollar question.
Legislators weren’t persuaded by blanket assurances. Republicans repeatedly pointed to comments made last year by Griffin, and to an email he sent in February 2024, suggesting the district didn’t believe it needed to follow the law as written.
That, of course, sparked sharp follow‑up from committee members, including Rep. Jeff McNeely (R‑Iredell) and Rep. Brian Echevaria (R‑Cabarrus)
McNeely made clear he’s already thinking about what comes next: legislation that would give the state teeth to enforce compliance, which could mean withholding of funds from school systems that blatantly refuse to follow state laws.
“North Carolina will not tolerate rogue systems that have no money and refuse to comply with state law,” McNeely warned.
In other words: statesmanship or starvation? Take your pick.
Meanwhile, Echevaria didn’t sugarcoat it either. In his own questioning, he pressed school leaders on why, if they’re complying, there are still complaints from parents who say they weren’t notified about changes to how their children were identified in school. That line of inquiry echoed earlier conservative media reports and social media posts that fueled the legislature’s interest in this saga.
For their part, school officials repeatedly insisted they are following the law. Griffin went so far as to apologize for any misunderstanding his earlier remarks may have caused. The district says its curriculum and procedures are consistent with SB49, and administrators reaffirmed that parental involvement is essential.
Translation? Lawmakers weren’t buying it. At least not entirely.
When the hearing wrapped, the feeling among Republicans was that Chapel Hill‑Carrboro didn’t just mishandle its policy rollout — it signaled a deeper resistance to parental rights laws that are now on the books and actively enforced.
And that leads us back to Adam Guilette’s earlier point: If state laws don’t have enforcement “teeth,” districts may treat them like suggestions — optional. Guilette said that on the podcast. Now state lawmakers are trying to prove he was right. Or maybe wrong. Either way — this fight is far from over.
One thing is certain: North Carolina conservatives are done letting districts interpret parents’ rights on their own terms.
Parents want control. Legislators want accountability.

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