CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (LifeSiteNews) — The Diocese of Charlotte – headed by Bishop Michael Martin, who notoriously banned the Latin Mass in his diocese – is siding with a school that expelled children after their parents complained about the school’s adoption of woke ideology, including graphic, sexually explicit LGBTQ+ books.
The lawsuit by parents of the expelled children, Doug and Nicole Turpin, Turpin v. Charlotte Latin School, now before the North Carolina Supreme Court, “asks whether a private school can invite open dialogue and then expel students in retaliation for their parents’ protected speech.”
“Doug and Nicole Turpin sent their children, Olive and Luke, to Charlotte Latin expecting them to flourish,” begins the Turpins’ legal complaint. “Instead, Latin expelled them—abruptly, without warning, and without process.”
“The reason?” asked their filing, “Doug spoke up.”
Charlotte Latin School, which is not Catholic, “is marketed to parents as an apolitical, merit-based classical education private school which teaches children how to think, not what to think,” wrote Doug Turpin in an April 2023 op-ed. “When a new headmaster … was installed in mid-2020, a notice was sent out to all parents that the school has a new ‘foundational’ position which said DEI would be the lens through which every aspect of the school’s culture and curriculum will be managed.”
“Suddenly, alarming virtue-signaling, and woke class assignments were implemented,” said Turpin, who explained:
I was one of the leaders of a group of 60+ alarmed parents who created a group, Refocus Latin, which requested an audience with Latin’s Board. We were invited to make a presentation, with the explicit promise there would be no retaliation against us.
The presentation included images of artwork that suddenly began to appear in the school, such as a picture of Jesus with his throat cut and black blood flowing out from his body with the words “God is Dead.” The presentation also included a book that amounted to a how-to manual for gay sex found in the children’s library and a story containing a man graphically raping a young boy.
Turpin also noted, “my son reported to me that his teacher taught the class that Republicans are White supremacists who are trying to create Jim Crow 2.0.”
Earlier this week, the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte requested permission from the state Supreme Court to submit an amicus brief in support of the school’s freedom to terminate enrollment of students whose parents oppose it embracing a woke ideological stance.
“Although the Diocese agrees with Charlotte Latin that it had an enforceable contractual right to terminate Plaintiffs’ children’s enrollment when — in its sole discretion — Charlotte Latin determined that Plaintiffs had made a collaborative relationship impossible or had seriously interfered with its mission, the Diocese also presents this Court with an alternative argument, made by no existing party, that underscores the broader significance of this case for private religious schools across North Carolina and highlights First Amendment concerns that no party has addressed in depth,” wrote diocesan attorney Joshua Davey.
“The Diocese operates a network of Catholic schools that, like Charlotte Latin, require enrollment contracts expressly reserving the right to terminate enrollment when, among other reasons, parental conduct undermines the school’s mission,” added Davey. “These contractual provisions are essential tools that allow religious schools to carry out their faith-based educational missions while providing clarity and transparency to families who voluntarily choose to enroll.”
“[E]nforcing such provisions as written not only accords with longstanding principles of North Carolina contract law but also avoids entangling courts in religious questions and protects the constitutional autonomy of private religious schools under the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” added Davey.
While the Charlotte Diocese is supporting the actions of the school, Republican elected officials, led by U.S. House Reps. Richard Hudson and Pat Harrigan, have sided with the Turpins.
“When private schools unfairly retaliate against students and their parents, can the schools be held accountable?” asked lawyer Troy Shelton in a brief expressing the concerns of the GOP politicians. “That’s where Charlotte Latin broke its promises, smeared the Turpins in public, and expelled the children. If the decision below stands, it grants schools unfettered discretion to engage in such retaliatory conduct, undermining the foundational trust between families and schools in North Carolina.”
“The Turpins’ ordeal exemplifies the vulnerability of families in private educational settings,” wrote Shelton. “After following the school’s prescribed channels for dialogue about curricular concerns, the Turpins were met with severe retaliation — their children were summarily expelled and the parents were defamed.”
The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case on October 29.
