Scott Lassiter, Republican candidate for N.C. Senate District 13 in 2024, filed a lawsuit accusing the Wake County school system of suspending him and leaking the news to hurt his campaign.
Scott Lassiter
Former Republican state Senate candidate Scott Lassiter has filed a lawsuit accusing the Wake County school system of suspending him from his job as an assistant principal and forcing him to resign to help Democrats in the 2024 election.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in Wake County Superior Court, Lassiter says he was unfairly suspended from his position after breaking up a fight at Connections Academy in May 2024. Lassiter accuses the school system of suspending him, leaking the news to the media and pressuring him to resign to hurt his political campaign to help Democrats break the GOP supermajority in the Senate.
“They wanted that Senate seat very, very badly,” Lassiter’s attorney, Woody Webb Sr., said in an interview Friday with The News & Observer. “It’s no secret that these educational institutions are fairly Democratic in nature, and I mean the Democratic Party, and his opponent was funded to some extent by the NCAE, which is indisputably a liberal teachers union.
“I think they wanted to make sure that the Republicans could not retain the supermajority.”
Democratic Sen. Lisa Grafstein defeated Lassiter in the District 13 race. But Republicans were able to maintain their legislative supermajority in the Senate.
The Wake County school system denied Lassiter’s allegations.
“We believe Dr. Lassiter’s claims are without merit, and we are prepared to vigorously defend the school system in court,” Wake said in a statement Friday.
Questions after Lassiter restrained a student
Connections Academy is an alternative school where students are placed before they’re allowed to return to their regular school.
In the lawsuit, Lassiter said on May 22, 2024, he and a Behavior Support Specialist physically restrained a male student who was assaulting a female student and threatening to kill her.
Lassiter said he and the specialist used their training to properly restrain the student and deescalate the situation.
Later that day, the lawsuit says, the male student’s adult brother and mother came to the school and threatened to harm Lassiter. Police came and arrested the brother, who was trying to enter the school.
On Sept. 5, 2024, Lassiter says he was notified in a letter from Wake he was being immediately suspended “as a result of alleged negative physical interaction with a student.”
Soon after the letter, the lawsuit says Kendra Hill, then the district’s employee relations director, contacted Lassiter and told him he should consider resigning or face a public termination record that would be sent to the school board.
“The warning from Hill to resign was in reaction to Plaintiff’s positive polling numbers in his campaign for the State Senate,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit called Hill a “political operative of the Democratic Party.”
“The allegations and insinuations against me in this lawsuit are not just inaccurate, they are completely false and misleading,” Hill said in a statement Friday.
Did Wake leak suspension to the public?
The lawsuit says that Lassiter entered into a confidential personnel agreement in which he agreed to resign “to avoid intense media attention and scrutiny flowing from any alleged misconduct.” The agreement was executed on Oct. 6 — three days after the suspension was first reported by media outlets and a month before the election.
The lawsuit charges that Wake “reported the student altercation incident to the media to negatively affect his political campaign before the CPA was executed and, in fact, while it was being negotiated.”
“It was violating his constitutional rights to engage in political activity,” Webb said. “They were clearly trying to affect that campaign.”
State takes no action against Lassiter
The lawsuit says Lassiter wouldn’t have agreed to resign if Wake had told him it planned to file a misconduct report with the state Department of Public Instruction.
Webb concedes that the misconduct report is required to be made. But Webb says misconduct reports aren’t always filed and it should have been made back in May 2024 and not in November 2024 after Lassiter agreed to resign.
“We can confirm that the State Board of Education has not imposed any formal disciplinary sanctions against Mr. Lassiter, and his case has been closed,” Jeanie McDowell, a DPI spokesperson, said in an email Friday.
Webb charges that part of the reason for the district’s actions was retaliation for Lassiter complaining about safety conditions in schools.
“Plaintiff consistently and passionately asserted that some Wake County Public Schools were becoming ‘dumping grounds’ for the area’s unmotivated, troubled and violent children with no real strategy to improve their lot,” the lawsuit says. “Moreover, his safety concerns for the schools, teachers and students were a central plank in his political campaign for the State Senate much to the chagrin of the (North Carolina Association of Educators) and the Democrat party.”
Lassiter seeks damages, wants job back
Lassiter is asking for damages and to get his job back from Wake. Webb said that news about the case has negatively impacted Lassiter’s livelihood.
“It’s affected his job opportunities,” Webb said. “It’s affected his reputation.”
Lassiter now works for the Division of Services for the Blind at the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Lassiter sued Tim Moore in 2023
Lassiter, a former Apex Town Council member, was previously involved in high-profile litigation with then House Speaker Tim Moore.
In 2023, Lassiter sued Moore, alleging that Moore had a relationship with Lassiter’s then wife, a state employee. Moore admitted to that relationship but denied exchanging political influence for sex. Attorneys for both sides said the lawsuit was resolved but did not provide details.
Staff writer Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi contributed.
This story was originally published July 17, 2026 at 3:20 PM.
The News & Observer
T. Keung Hui has covered K-12 education for the News & Observer since 1999, helping parents, students, school employees and the community understand the vital role education plays in North Carolina. His primary focus is Wake County, but he also covers statewide education issues.
