They were protesting political bias they say has worked its way into classrooms.

Kenny Wortman is the father of a 10th grade student at Central Cabarrus High School. He started a petition on Change.org that has garnered more than 760 signatures calling for the superintendent’s resignation as well as the removal of several teachers.

In it, he says, "There are radical, leftist teachers politicizing and indoctrinating the youth of Cabarrus County by bringing their ideology and personal views into class."

“We’re here to protest and demand action against (these teachers) and Superintendent Lowder, and all the rest of the teachers that are bad apples,” Wortman said Monday. 

Wortman spoke to WBT Radio last week about his complaints. He points to one incident, which was caught on audio, of a teacher saying: “Your individual freedom never supersedes the interest of the whole, meaning your personal freedom does not matter when we’re talking about protecting 300 million people.”

He said this is not the type of conversation that should be taking place inside of a classroom. You can hear more of the audio here.

“Whatever they grow up to be, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “... Democrat, Republican, that’s the big push right now. It doesn’t matter if it falls up on Republican, if it falls up on Democrat, if it falls up in the middle…it’s doesn’t matter.

“Those kids should be given the opportunity to form their own opinions.”

He added that there have been Facebook posts in which teachers have disparaged students during the pandemic. In the petition, he says, "teachers are posting pictures of our kids in social media, bashing them, without any consent or concern."

Brian Leepard is a father of three, two of whom were in Cabarrus County Schools before the onset of the pandemic. He moved his children to a private school in Rowan County when he found out they were not going to be in the classroom to start the year. He plans to bring them back into Cabarrus public schools when COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed.

He supports Wortman’s stance and is calling for the county's school board to hold employees accountable for their actions.

“We’re here to No. 1 hold the school board responsible for the superintendent not doing his job,” he said. “The superintendent needs to hold these teachers responsible when they start pushing their left-wing ideology on our children, or any ideology, regardless of which side it is.

“The children need to be presented with the facts and allow them to make their own decisions from there. These teachers do not need to be pushing that stuff.”

Both Leepard and Wortman said they they believe most teachers do a great job.

“There’s a lot of good teachers out there,” Wortman said. “They are being bullied by the same teachers that we are addressing tonight."