Advocates team up to reform NC’s 'antiquated' divorce laws. Plus, a Wake elementary school is in the crossfire

From the studios of WUNC News in Chapel Hill, this is Due South on listener-supported public media.

I'm Jeff Tiberii.

An elementary school in Wake County could become a legal test case for parents' rights when it comes to their children's moral upbringing.

At the center of a relatively new controversy is a music teacher hired last summer.

The teacher identifies as a trans woman.

Some parents would like to pull their students from her class, but say they aren't presently allowed to.

A far-right social media account known as Libs of TikTok picked up the story, and it gained national traction on that platform as well as on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Liz Schlemmer, WUNC education reporter, joins us now.

She's been following this story and has, uh, more to share.

Liz, welcome back to Due South.

Hi, Jeff.

Thank you for being here.

All right, so we have, uh, a music teacher at a Wake County elementary school, that's as specific as we're gonna get because, uh, it is, uh, who i- is transgender.

She presents as a woman, uses female pronouns.

Uh, there are trans teachers all over the country.

How did this become a national story?

So she was hired over the summer, and in July, State Representative Erin Pare, um, posted about it on X.

Uh, it seems that some families, um, from the school reached out to her.

She's one of their local representatives.

Mm-hmm.

And sh- sh- she brought attention to this, and then it started getting picked up, uh, by other outlets, especially on social media.

And then since then, families have started coming to school board meetings, giving public comment, um, talking about it, and then those clips have been also picked up and used on Fox News-

Okay

... and Breitbart.

And also, I mean, I think I've seen, uh, a post by LGBTQ Nation talking about some of the parents who were in support of the teacher.

From the studios of WUNC News in Chapel Hill, this is Due South on listener-supported public media.

I'm Jeff Tiberii.

An elementary school in Wake County could become a legal test case for parents' rights when it comes to their children's moral upbringing.

At the center of a relatively new controversy is a music teacher hired last summer.

The teacher identifies as a trans woman.

Some parents would like to pull their students from her class, but say they aren't presently allowed to.

A far-right social media account known as Libs of TikTok picked up the story, and it gained national traction on that platform as well as on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Liz Schlemmer, WUNC education reporter, joins us now.

She's been following this story and has, uh, more to share.

Liz, welcome back to Due South.

Hi, Jeff.

Thank you for being here.

All right, so we have, uh, a music teacher at a Wake County elementary school, that's as specific as we're gonna get because, uh, it is, uh, who i- is transgender.

She presents as a woman, uses female pronouns.

Uh, there are trans teachers all over the country.

How did this become a national story?

So she was hired over the summer, and in July, State Representative Erin Pare, um, posted about it on X.

Uh, it seems that some families, um, from the school reached out to her.

She's one of their local representatives.

Mm-hmm.

And sh- sh- she brought attention to this, and then it started getting picked up, uh, by other outlets, especially on social media.

And then since then, families have started coming to school board meetings, giving public comment, um, talking about it, and then those clips have been also picked up and used on Fox News-

Okay

... and Breitbart.

And also, I mean, I think I've seen, uh, a post by LGBTQ Nation talking about some of the parents who were in support of the teacher.