Source: Editorial Board
The name Scott Lassiter might sound familiar to some North Carolinians, especially those in the Triangle, because he is the former Apex Town Council member and current Wake County assistant principal who filed a lawsuit last summer against Republican North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore.
Lassiter, a Republican, filed a lawsuit against Moore, accusing him of having an affair with his wife for more than three years that resulted in the “destruction” of his marriage. The lawsuit accused Moore, who often worked with Lassiter’s wife, of using his political power to convince her to engage in “degrading sexual acts” with Moore and others. Lassiter sought more than $200,000 in damages, but the case was quickly settled.
But this article isn’t about Lassiter’s marriage or the lawsuit – this is about Lassiter’s candidacy for North Carolina State Senate District 13, which, after redistricting, now covers southern Wake County including all of Fuquay-Varina. Lassiter will be running against current Democratic state Sen. Lisa Grafstein.
Although Lassiter is employed as a vice principal in the Wake County Public School System and has expressed support for raising teacher wages and funding public schools at an appropriate level, there are still concerns about his positions on education and if he would be a rubber-stamp for the GOP or if he would stand with Democrats on these issues.
It’s hard to imagine Lassiter voting with Democrats considering his support of right-wing extremist state superintendent candidate Michele Morrow, who has called our public schools “a tax-payer funded socialism indoctrination machine.” He spoke at Morrow’s panel on school safety in March, after which CNN wrote a story about Morrow under the headline “GOP nominee to run North Carolina public schools called for violence against Democrats, including executing Obama and Biden.”
In addition to his ties to Morrow, he was endorsed by a right-wing anti-public education organization, The Carolina Teachers Alliance (CTA), which was formed by conservatives in early 2021 as an alternative to the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). The NCAE is the state’s largest education advocacy organization for public school employees and represents active, retired and student members.
According to a March 31, 2021, News & Observer article, CTA was started as an “alternative” to the NCAE with a stated goal of “empowering teachers ‘to provide the highest quality, unbiased and achievement-driven education to all children.'” The CTA is an anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) group. Being anti-CRT is a way of saying that you don’t believe racism is systemic in our laws and rules and/or that it hasn’t impacted our society, education or laws. To deny racism’s impact on our country is to deny the reality of our nation’s founding and its evolution to the current day. Lassiter has said he opposes CRT and that school curriculum shouldn’t be “divisive.” For the record, CRT is not something taught or practiced in North Carolina’s schools.
The CTA is led by Amy Marshall, a former Wake County teacher who quit “because of the way she was treated for refusing to attend a school district training session about white privilege,” according to The News & Observer. The group was endorsed by Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson more than three years ago and a press release at the time included a quote from Robinson that said “Carolina Teachers Alliance has my full support” because “there is a need for an alternative NC teacher association” that doesn’t focus on “indoctrination in the classroom.”
Regarding education funding, Lassiter has said that he believes public education funds should follow students, whether they attend public school, private school or are homeschooled. He also supports giving public schools “charter school-like flexibility” to “give parents options to best serve their students.”
Lassiter is a strong proponent of discipline in schools, saying, “Teachers need to be able to teach and students need to be able to learn … [and] discipline is required for that to happen.” Part of his desire to get tougher on students is informed by his belief that children are “being labeled with pseudo-disabilities and given excuses to fail that are outside of their control.” He has also said that school administrators, teachers and SROs be “given the green light to tighten up security and prioritize a safe learning environment without being concerned about hurt feelings or optics.”
Lassiter’s association with extremists doesn’t just come from his support of Morrow and support by a Robinson-endorsed group, he has also given and received support from MAGA extremists who are backing Trump’s presidential campaign. He has donated thousands of dollars to U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, state House Speaker Tim Moore and Republican state Reps. Destin Hall, Jason Saine and Jim Perry. Hall, Saine and Perry are three of the most conservative members currently serving in the legislature.
Other extreme positions:
- Proudly claims to be a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association
- He believes the government “should be quite limited” to only infrastructure, defense, law/security and public education
- He said “I support life” in reference to “lives of the unborn” when asked if he would further restrict abortion in North Carolina
- Agreed that there should be special in-person requirements and reporting for abortion drugs
- Supported defunding Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides cancer screenings and other basic health care
- Attends a church that provides resources calling abortion murder, has promoted crisis pregnancy centers, and has encouraged parishioners to pray outside a Raleigh abortion clinic
It’s clear that Lassiter is trying to moderate his positions in public to appeal to the voters in southern Wake County, a more moderate section of a Democratic county, but pulling back the curtain reveals that, if elected, he will be just another Republican extremist who will toe the party line.
