NEWTON — Catawba County Schools just did what activist school boards across North Carolina have spent years pretending they cannot do: put biological reality back on the bathroom door.
On Aug. 17, the Catawba County Board of Education advanced Policy 4.0000 — “Student Privacy in Restrooms, Locker Rooms, and Overnight Accommodations” — requiring students to use multi-occupancy restrooms, locker rooms, showers, and changing facilities designated for their biological sex. The board voted unanimously.
Isaac Burke addressed the board in Newton on behalf of NC Values, speaking in favor of separating multi-occupancy restrooms, locker rooms, and other private spaces by biological sex. “Thank you to the board for voting unanimously to adopt this important and commonsense policy,” he said afterward. Mary Summa, general counsel for the NC Values Coalition, writing in Carolina Journal, called the vote a first-in-the-state moment for protecting girls in K-12 public schools. She reported no protests, no outrage circus, and not a single speaker opposing the policy.
That should tell you something. Parents in this county were not confused. The board was not confused. Supporters showed up and said so. Only the ideology industry is confused.
What the policy actually says
The board’s own findings are blunt. Students have a legitimate expectation of privacy in spaces where kids undress. Multi-occupancy facilities raise privacy concerns that “warrant reasonable protections based on students’ biological sex.” The policy defines biological sex as male or female as determined by anatomy and genetics at birth and as reflected on the original birth certificate — not a self-ID form, not a TikTok aesthetic, not a teacher’s preferred pronouns.
Students must use the multi-occupancy facilities for their biological sex. Crossing into the opposite-sex facility is barred except for a bona fide emergency, custodial or security needs, or other administration authorization for a legitimate educational or operational purpose.
Kids who want more privacy can still get it. The superintendent or designee may offer single-user restrooms, private changing areas, alternative scheduling, or other reasonable measures — without forcing any other student into an opposite-sex space. Overnight trips get the same rule: sleeping quarters assigned by biological sex, with room for alternative accommodations that protect privacy and safety.
In other words: girls’ rooms for girls. Boys’ rooms for boys. Extra privacy for anyone who asks. Nobody else’s dignity gets sacrificed on the altar of fashion ideology.
The neighbors haven’t followed
Hickory City Schools and Newton-Conover City Schools have not adopted a similar sex-based facility policy yet.
That matters in a county where commissioners already voted to merge all three systems into one district by July 1, 2028. The bathroom fight is not an abstract culture-war hobby. It is a preview of whose rules will govern the merged map — the county board that wrote biological sex into policy, or the city boards that have so far declined to do the same.
Catawba County parents who like what the County School Board did Aug. 17 should remember that. The merger clock is running.
Statewide cowardice, local courage
Summa’s column sketches the cost of boardroom paralysis elsewhere: reported cases of boys in girls’ facilities across multiple North Carolina counties, girls afraid to change for gym, parents told there is “nothing” schools can do. Cabarrus County is already in federal court over biological males in girls’ restrooms at a high school. Catawba County’s answer was not a lawsuit. It was a vote.
Federal executive orders cited in the policy itself tell the Education Department to enforce education law according to biological sex at birth. Catawba County Schools did not wait for another round of activist guidance to rewrite reality. It wrote the standard down.
Other districts can keep wringing their hands. This one posted the rule.
Policy text: Catawba County Board of Education, Policy 4.0000 (second reading Aug. 17, 2026). Public comment: Isaac Burke for NC Values (https://www.facebook.com/reel/1839362043709944). Context: Mary Summa, NC Values Coalition, Carolina Journal / Salisbury Post, Sept. 1, 2026.
Reader submission
Sandy Jarvis, Chair of Moms for Liberty Catawba, submitted the following comment:
“As Chair of Moms for Liberty Catawba, I met personally with each school district superintendent last year. A specific question was asked regarding the changes made to Title IX regulations. I asked if their district followed Title IX regulations and the EO associated with it. ALL three Superintendents answered in the affirmative. Catawba County School district has solidified this regulation specifically in relation to personal spaces and solidifying the definition of male and female to biological sex at birth in this latest policy. I will follow up with Hickory City Schools and Newton-Conover City Schools Superintendents and School Boards and ask if they intend to make a similar specific policy to be sure private spaces are safe for both boys and girls in public schools.”
Earlier coverage: Commissioners approve three-district school merger plan
