North Carolina Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus), left, listens to testimony during a hearing of the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 27, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)
A House legislative oversight hearing at the North Carolina General Assembly Wednesday devolved into shouting and book-throwing by the committee chairman.
Republican lawmakers pressed Chapel Hill-Carrboro school leaders over whether the district had complied with the requirements in the state’s “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” which became law in 2023.
It was so heated that Rep. Amos Quick (D-Guilford), who had been watching the hearing remotely before arriving, ruefully described the proceedings as “pretty good TV.”
“There was book throwing, there was cussing, there was all of that,” Quick said. “I’ve been elected here for going on 10 years, and I have to say… I had secondhand embarrassment for the way this meeting was being conducted.”
For nearly two hours, members of the House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform grilled Superintendent Rodney Trice and former School Board Chair George Griffin and accused them of defying the law.
Both men were called to appear after Board Chair George Griffin was recorded at a school board meeting saying that CHCCS was openly defying Senate Bill 49, the state law requiring schools to notify parents when a student changes their name or pronouns. The video clip went viral among conservatives.
“You’re not here today because of a misunderstanding. You’re here today because you chose to wage war against the law, you chose to deceive the public, and now you’re here because you got caught,” Chair Rep. Brenden Jones told the men in his opening remarks.
Both Trice and Griffin maintained throughout the hearing that the district was following the law.
Griffin repeatedly declined to say whether he believed the law was constitutional, saying he was not an attorney. When pressed, he said only, “I think there’s a part of the law that singled out a subgroup of students.”
For his part, Trice defended the district’s practices saying, “Parents are essential partners, and we believe in involving them in every decision affecting their kids.”
Griffin said the board ultimately voted to follow Senate Bill 49.
“That evening, we enacted seven parts of the bill—all the parts—except for putting in policy the one clause on pronouns,” Griffin said. “It was our understanding that the board should direct staff to develop written guidance for that issue, and that is what we did. ‘In our judgment, that is in complete compliance with the law, and that’s where we left things at the end of the night.”
Rep. Jeff McNeely (R-Iredell) asked, “So you thought the law that we gave you was multiple choice? You could kind of choose what you liked?” he asked.
McNeely also questioned Trice about the district’s finances and reliance on state funding. “So y’all don’t have the money to be able to educate these kids with your own money, you’re going to need some help, aren’t you?”
“Certainly we need state funds to help educate our kids at a high level,” Trice replied.
“There’s a darn good chance you may not get them,” McNeely shot back. “We’re not going to put up with rogue school systems who have no money and will not comply with the laws of this state. Do you understand what I said there?”
‘Attack on gay, trans people’
Jones also accused the school district of “grooming” students, saying it had “promoted sample pronoun surveys for kids without telling their parents” and “pushed gender support plans that included a check box to exclude parents.”
Jones read from several pro-LGBTQ+ children’s books he said were recommended by the district to K-4 students, denounced them as “pure trash,” and slammed them to the floor. He also accused the district of “indoctrinating” students.
Rep. Allison Dahle (D-Wake), one of the few openly LGBTQ+ lawmakers in the General Assembly, described the committee’s scrutiny as an “attack on gay, trans people.”
“This is a way for everybody to be afraid of something that is 1% of this population,”she said.
Dahle also noted the difficulties school administrators face in balancing the needs of all students, including LGBTQ+ students.
“The school system is between a rock and a hard place,” she said. “You’ve got kids that are on one end of the spectrum to the other, and you have to do everything you can to help each and every person learn.”
Democratic lawmakers on the committee criticized Republicans for focusing on the school district rather than addressing broader funding issues.
In a joint statement, Reps. Maria Cervania (D-Wake) and Eric Ager (D-Buncombe) said the hearing was a distraction from the legislature’s failure to pass a budget or fully fund public schools, including rural districts that are severely under-resourced.
“Instead of being angry when local schools try to protect our kids and teach them the truth,” they said, “perhaps the majority should follow the Leandro court order, fully fund education in North Carolina, stop starving rural school districts of funding, teachers, and capital improvements, and scrap the disastrous and bloated school voucher welfare program that shuffles money to the wealthiest members of our community.”
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