A woman in North Carolina is suing a school district, alleging officials forced her children to switch schools while they experienced homelessness.
The suit from the mother, identified as K.L., claims Gaston County Schools; Lisa Phillips, state coordinator for Education of Homeless Children; and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction failed her children when the district forced the children to leave their original schools while already facing the trauma of homelessness.
The 17-page lawsuit filed on Jan. 26 states K.L. was evicted from her residence in September 2023 while her children were students at New Hope Elementary and Cramerton Middle School.
With two children and nowhere to go, the suit states the disabled veteran mother switched both children to car riders while searching for steady housing. While the family remained in the same city, they were not located in the same school zone following the eviction.
To play devil’s advocate here:
It’s hypothetically possible they didn’t. If the school is required to enroll every student in its district regardless of its capacity, the school could have been overcrowded already. Kicking out two students may still have left them overcrowded and thus given them justification to deny their admittance on residency status.
(To be absolutely clear, I don’t think this is what happened, but it’s also not an impossible scenario either. But as the school won’t comment now that there’s pending litigation we only have the mother’s word as to what happened, and even though we have no reason to not believe what she is claiming, it should still be remembered that you can allege pretty much whatever you want when filing a civil suit.)