Scott Lassiter sues Wake County schools over alleged political suspension

Scott Lassiter has sued Wake County Public School System, accusing district officials of suspending him from his assistant principal job for political reasons and pressuring him to resign. The Republican candidate for North Carolina Senate District 13, which covers most of southern Wake County, is seeking damages and reinstatement as the dispute over his school discipline case spills into a race against Democratic Sen. Lisa Grafstein.

The conflict began in early October 2024, when Lassiter was suspended with pay while Wake County schools investigated his role in removing a student after an altercation at an alternative middle school for students with disciplinary problems. He was reinstated about a month later, and Wake schools spokeswoman Lisa Luten later confirmed that Lassiter was back in "active status."

Lassiter’s lawsuit says the suspension was not just an internal personnel action. He alleges that information about the suspension was leaked to the media to help Democrats win the Senate seat and that Wake officials pushed him to resign. Those claims put the district’s timeline, the records behind the investigation and the policy basis for the suspension under new scrutiny.

The case now sits at the intersection of school discipline and politics in Wake County, where the district’s handling of one administrator has become part of a broader fight over a competitive seat that reaches deep into southern Wake. Lassiter’s request for damages and his job back could force the school system to defend how it handled the investigation, the suspension and his return to work.