North Carolina Families Sue Cabarrus County Schools Over Bathroom Policy for Biological Males

A North Carolina school district is facing two separate federal lawsuits over the same basic complaint: parents and students say Cabarrus County Schools won't confirm whether biological males are using girls' restrooms and locker rooms, or is actively allowing it.

The first suit comes from Brandon Matthews, a father whose daughter attends Mount Pleasant Elementary School and whose son attends Mount Pleasant High School, according to Fox News Digital. Matthews asked both principals in May to notify him if a student of the opposite biological sex was permitted to use the bathrooms or locker rooms his children use. He did not ask officials to identify any specific student, according to his lawsuit.

He says he never got an answer.

Matthews is represented by the America First Legal Foundation, whose senior counsel Nicholas Barry told Fox News Digital the case comes down to a basic parental right. "Brandon Matthews does not currently know whether a male is using his fourth grade daughter's bathroom," Barry said. "And does he have a constitutional right to know that? We say yes."

Matthews raised the issue publicly at a May 11 school board meeting, appearing alongside his daughter. "Nobody's targeting a child," he told the board. "All we're asking is that the bathrooms are accessible to each gender. If they want that, then create a new bathroom." His daughter also addressed the board directly: "I'm personally a girl and I wouldn't want a boy following me in the girls' bathroom. It's inappropriate."

Matthews also made a comment during that meeting that goes well beyond ordinary advocacy. Discussing what he'd do if someone touched his daughter, he said, "Anytime somebody touches this little girl, I'm gonna hang them from my garage." That statement is worth reporting alongside everything else he said.

A separate, more specific lawsuit at the high school level

The second case, reported by Carolina Journal, is more concrete. Three Cox Mill High School students, identified in the complaint as Mary Doe, Beth Roe, and Diane Poe, along with their mothers, filed a federal lawsuit against the Cabarrus County school board and Superintendent John Kopicki.

Unlike the Matthews lawsuit, which centers on a district's refusal to disclose information, the Cox Mill complaint alleges the district has an actual policy of permitting biological males into female restrooms, locker rooms, and changing facilities. The 35-page complaint says this violates Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and Article I, Section 19 of the North Carolina Constitution.

The plaintiffs' attorneys, who also include America First Legal Foundation representatives, lean heavily on history and precedent in their filing. They cite the fact that sex-separated restrooms became standard practice specifically to protect women's privacy and safety, framing it as an early win for the women's rights movement rather than a relic to be dismantled.

Notably, the lawsuit quotes Ruth Bader Ginsburg's own 1975 Washington Post column, written before she joined the Supreme Court, arguing that "separate places to disrobe, sleep, and perform personal bodily functions are permitted, in some situations required, by regard for individual privacy." It's a deliberate move: invoking a liberal icon to argue that separating facilities by biological sex isn't some right-wing invention, it's a position that's had bipartisan support for decades.

The complaint also points to the Supreme Court's recent ruling affirming that school sports can be separated by biological sex, arguing the same reasoning about protecting the safety and dignity of women and girls should extend to restrooms and locker rooms.

What's actually disputed here

There's a legitimate concern raised by supporters of more flexible bathroom policies, even though none of it appears directly rebutted in either lawsuit: that forcing transgender students into facilities matching their birth sex can expose them to harassment or unsafe situations, and that many districts have adopted single-occupancy or gender-neutral options specifically to avoid conflict. That argument isn't addressed in either the Fox News or Carolina Journal coverage, which focus almost entirely on the plaintiffs' side. Neither report includes a statement from Cabarrus County Schools or Superintendent Kopicki responding to the specific allegations, and no comment from any transgender student or advocacy group representing one appears in either account.

The Cox Mill complaint's core factual claim is that the district has a policy permitting biological males into female facilities. This is an allegation made in a legal filing and has not been verified by a court. Cabarrus County Schools has not issued a public response addressed to either lawsuit as of this reporting. Matthews' case is narrower still: it's not a claim that males are definitely using the facilities, but that the district won't answer the question either way.

This dispute comes amid broader scrutiny from the Trump administration's Department of Education on this issue. Fox News Digital notes the administration has previously opened Title IX investigations into school districts in North Carolina and Michigan over related bathroom-access policies. Whether those federal investigations produce findings that bear on either lawsuit, and how Cabarrus County Schools formally answers the Cox Mill complaint in court, are the next concrete developments to watch.