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Fraud Claim Over "No Blowback" Assurance by Private School to Complaining Parents, Followed by Children's Expulsions, Can Go Forward

Eugene Volokh | 8.14.2026 6:13 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 parents sued for, among other things, fraud, and the court let the claim go forward; here's the majority's analysis (the partial dissent doesn't focus on the particular "no blowback" statement that the majority discusses here):

To bring a claim for fraud, a plaintiff must allege a "(1) false representation or concealment of a material fact, (2)........

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