A profile in political courage
Rep. Erin Paré stepped into a difficult school debate in one of North Carolina’s most competitive districts.
It should not take political courage to say that elementary school is not the place to introduce children to complicated questions about gender identity.
But it still does, even in 2026, and state Rep. Erin Paré just demonstrated it.
After hearing concerns from parents about a male music teacher presenting as a woman at a southern Wake County elementary school, Paré promised to protect the children in her district. She also floated a requirement that public-school employees wear professional attire appropriate to their sex.
The ridicule arrived immediately. She had to know it would, especially in her part of the state.
Paré represents one of the most competitive legislative districts in North Carolina. Her seat is rated R+0 and a true toss-up. She is one of only a handful of Republican House members left in our state’s urban counties.
The politically safe response would have been to sympathize privately with the parents and then move on. Instead, she put her name behind their concern and stepped directly into one of the most treacherous debates in American politics.
That is what political bravery looks like.
If conservatives want elected officials to take risks for them, we need to support the ones who actually do it. You can donate to Paré’s campaign here.
But I also want to take the time to strategize about what the proper response should be, if anything. A statewide dress code isn’t a terrible idea, but it’s legally challenging and probably not worth it. There may be a cleaner avenue.
A legitimate concern
I need to put a caveat here. I do not know any of the details here beyond what Paré posted and the media has reported. But from what I can gather, the parents have raised a legitimate concern that deserves a serious answer.
Anybody with young children understands why. A male teacher presenting as a woman is not really something that can remain entirely separate from the classroom. Children notice. They ask questions. They want to understand why the adult in front of them appears to conflict with what they know about the differences between men and women.
If students are expected to affirm that the teacher is a woman, questions about an adult’s identity can quickly displace actual learning and draw young children into conversations about sex and gender that do not belong in an elementary classroom.
Parents are entitled to ask whether this situation is affecting classroom boundaries or interfering with instruction. I cannot answer that from a few news reports, but the school system should take the concern seriously.
I’d hold off on any rash legislative response, though, because North Carolina may already have a mechanism for getting answers.
State law prohibits instruction on gender identity, sexuality and sexual activity in kindergarten through fourth grade. It also establishes a process parents can use when they believe a school has violated that prohibition.
A parent can submit a written concern to the principal. If the matter is not resolved, the parent can request a State Board of Education hearing or sue the school system for a declaratory judgment. A court can issue an injunction and award attorneys’ fees if the parent prevails.
Does this particular situation violate the law? I do not know. But the argument becomes more substantial if students are being directed to use identity-based language, corrected for recognizing the teacher’s sex or led into teacher-initiated discussions about gender identity. Those are the facts the parents and school district need to establish.
Find the 80/20 ground
There is an obvious larger argument lurking behind all of this, but I’m going to leave most of it alone for now. We have to recognize that the larger argument remains perilous political terrain.
When conservatives confront a sensitive cultural issue, the best approach is often to find the 80/20 position and push on it. That does not mean surrendering the larger argument. It means choosing ground where the facts are overwhelming and the opposition has no credible defense.
Here is the clear 80/20 proposition: Every adult placed in front of children should be safe, competent, honest and professionally fit. North Carolina should have consistent standards for verifying that before someone enters a classroom.
North Carolina is the only state without a statewide requirement for teacher background checks. Local districts operate under a patchwork of policies, creating gaps in how identities, employment histories and misconduct are investigated.
Some districts conduct serious checks, while others rely on limited third-party searches that cover only a few years and skip national records databases and fail to search aliases and previous addresses.
It seems pretty obvious to me that North Carolina should establish a meaningful statewide standard for school employees. At a minimum, districts should verify identity, criminal history, credentials, previous employment and disciplinary records.
The House overwhelmingly passed House Bill 775 last year to strengthen school-employee vetting. Paré voted for it. The bill is now sitting in the Senate Rules Committee.
That is the 80/20 way to go about it. North Carolina can enforce its existing law, give parents a real path to answers and establish statewide standards for the adults entrusted with our children.
It took courage for Paré to raise this issue. Deciding what should come next will require some prudence, too.
