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Contract Claim Over Private School Expulsions, Allegedly Caused by Parents' Organizing Against Ideological Curriculum Changes, Can Go Forward

"Beginning in the summer of 2020, the school began to change its curriculum to focus on politicized issues of race and gender identity. At some point, the Turpins learned that the school was teaching their sixth-grade child various polarizing concepts such as 'Republicans are white supremacists.'"

Eugene Volokh | 8.14.2026 6:05 PM

Some excerpts from the long Turpin v. Charlotte Latin Schools, Inc., decided today by the N.C. Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Richard Dietz, joined by Chief Justice Paul Newby and Justices Philip Berger Jr., Tamara Barringer, and Trey Allen:

According to the complaint in this case, Plaintiffs Doug and Nicole Turpin sent their children to a private school called Charlotte Latin School. Beginning in the summer of 2020, the school began to change its curriculum to focus on politicized issues of race and gender identity. At some point, the Turpins learned that the school was teaching their sixth-grade child various polarizing concepts such as "Republicans are white supremacists." The school also required young students to read books on sexuality and gender identity that were not age appropriate.

The Turpins started organizing with other parents to voice their concerns about the school curriculum in 2021. Eventually, the Turpins scheduled a meeting with school leadership. At the meeting, the school was not interested in discussing the Turpins' concerns. Instead, the school terminated the Turpins' enrollment contracts and expelled their children with no advance warning….

The subject matter of this lawsuit no doubt touches on divisive topics in contemporary social discourse. But none of those divisive topics have any bearing on the legal issues before this Court today. Our task is to determine if the Turpins' complaint satisfies the "notice pleading" standard that applies in civil cases. That well-settled standard requires the complaint to contain a "short and plain statement" sufficient to notify the defendants of "the events or transactions which produced the claim." When reviewing a complaint under this standard, courts must take all the allegations as true and cannot grant a motion to dismiss unless it "appears certain that plaintiffs could prove no set of facts which would entitle them to relief." …

There's a lot going on in the 16K words of opinions, but here's the heart of the analysis allowing Turpins' breach of contract claim to go forward:

[T]he crux of this contract claim is a termination clause permitting Charlotte Latin to end enrollment if one of two contractual criteria is satisfied…. The termination provision permits Charlotte Latin to "discontinue enrollment" whenever it determines that one of two criteria is satisfied: (1) a........

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