WASHINGTON — A North Carolina high school has been accused of ignoring student concerns about a transgender classmate who allegedly used the girls’ locker room and stared at females while they changed.
Students at Cox Mill High School in Concord, northeast of Charlotte, were told by the then-principal the issue was “too political to address,” according to a complaint filed Tuesday by America First Legal (AFL), a right-leaning advocacy group.
AFL cited complaints by students and parents to the local school district, including student Trista Ruck’s appeal to the Cabarrus County School Board during a public hearing this past December.
“There is a biological male who dresses and acts like a female who is on the football and basketball cheer team. That is not the issue. The issue is whenever he dresses and undresses in the women’s locker room and uses the women’s restroom,” Ruck said at the time.
“[A] peer of mine, who is on a sports team, [said] that during scheduled spring workouts for her sport, she was in the locker room changing when she noticed him watching her and the other girls dress and undress,” Ruck added. “She stated that this made her feel extremely uncomfortable.”
Ruck also read out a response from then-principal Chris Myers, who informed one of the upset students that officials had “decided that there isn’t anything we can do” and that female students “can go somewhere else” if they felt uncomfortable.
Ruck herself said she had “tried to avoid the restrooms at all costs” and accused the high school’s administration and athletic director of having “blatantly ignored our concerns.”
Ten days later, the school board publicly confirmed the resignation of Myers as Cox Mill principal.
AFL filed a complaint to both the Department of Education and the Department of Justice, demanding a probe of the school district in response.
The organization, founded by current White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, argued that the high school’s actions may have violated Title IX’s ban on federally funding institutions engaging in sex-based discrimination.
“Girls should never be forced to sacrifice their privacy, safety, or dignity because school officials are afraid to tell the truth about biological sex,” AFL senior counsel Ian Prior said in a statement.
“Federal officials must get involved, investigate immediately, and ensure that Cabarrus County Schools follows federal law, not woke ideology.”
Parents had raised concerns about trans student access to girls’ facilities at Cox Mill High School as far back as 2024.
At that time, however, administrators purportedly claimed to “not have a specific policy” and deferred to the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX as banning discrimination on the basis of “gender identity.”
“Compelling female students to share intimate spaces — restrooms, locker rooms, and showers where they undress — with biological males is precisely the kind of sex-based condition that creates a hostile educational environment,” AFL wrote in its complaint.
Cabarrus County Schools and current Cox Mill high school principal Meghan Frazier did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
