Bonnie Cone Leadership Academy Lawsuit: Claims and Investigations

Thirteen parents filed a federal lawsuit against Bonnie Cone Leadership Academy and its management company Charter One on December 20, 2024, alleging that the Huntersville, North Carolina charter school discriminated against students with disabilities, disciplined Black students more harshly than their peers, ignored persistent harassment, and retaliated against employees who spoke up. The case, Hamilton et al v. Bonnie Cone Leadership Academy, LLC et al, is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina and remains active as of May 2026.¹

Who Sued and Who Was Sued

The complaint was filed under case number 3:24-cv-01104 by parents Jennifer Hamilton, Susan Hunter, Ketra Chambers, Braunte Mowbray, and nine others. The named defendants are Bonnie Cone Leadership Academy, LLC; Charter One, LLC; Bonnie Cone Classical Academy, Inc.; and BCCA Properties, LLC. The plaintiffs are represented by Ian Michael McRary of McRary Law and by Jeffrey D. Bukowski and Nathan L. Hopkins of Smith Bukowski, LLC.¹

Bonnie Cone Leadership Academy is a tuition-free public charter school serving roughly 1,300 K–12 students in Huntersville. It opened in the 2023–2024 school year. The school’s nonprofit board contracts with Charter One, an Arizona-based education management organization, to handle day-to-day operations in exchange for a fee paid from the school’s public funds.²

The complaint brings claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and also invokes the North Carolina Constitution’s guarantee of a “sound basic education.” It alleges disability discrimination, racial discrimination, deliberate indifference to student harassment, and retaliation against employees who reported problems.³

Disability Discrimination Claims

The largest cluster of allegations concerns students with disabilities. According to the complaint, the school segregated special-needs students for testing, gave them less instructional time than their classmates, and denied the accommodations and specialized instruction required by their Individualized Education Programs. The complaint also alleges disabled students were disproportionately targeted in disciplinary proceedings.³

A detailed example in the complaint involves two children of plaintiff Susan Hunter, identified as E.R.H. and O.E.H., who were allegedly denied legally required exceptional-children services. The school cited “understaffing” as the reason. E.R.H. was made to take end-of-course tests in a segregated setting ten days before her peers without adequate preparation and failed. Hunter filed a complaint with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction in March 2024, and the state confirmed the school had failed to provide mandated accommodations for both children. The complaint alleges the school had still not provided compensatory services or reimbursement when the suit was filed.³

The plaintiffs also allege the school coerced parents into signing forms that effectively waived their children’s accommodations, presenting the documents as routine administrative paperwork.³

Harassment and Racial Discrimination Claims

The complaint describes a ninth-grade student with autism and ADHD, identified as C.M.H., who was allegedly subjected to persistent harassment by a male classmate. The harasser is alleged to have taken unauthorized photos of her, made inappropriate comments, destroyed her property, and repeatedly pressured her to use a racial slur. School administrators, including Director Jennifer Mognett and Dean Jennifer Bonfiglio, were aware of the situation but did not investigate or discipline the harasser, according to the complaint. Instead, administrators suggested moving C.M.H. to a different class. The lawsuit alleges Mognett declined to act in part because the harasser was on the basketball team and she did not want the school’s harassment statistics to “look bad.”³

More broadly, the complaint alleges the school singled out Black students for harsher disciplinary sanctions through biased, ad hoc investigations. In a separate incident involving a physical assault on a Black student, the complaint alleges that Director Mognett withheld critical information from police, and no charges were filed.⁴

Retaliation and Other Allegations

Plaintiff Susan Hunter, who worked at the school as a staff member, says she reported suspected student abuse to Director Mognett on two separate occasions, one involving possible sexual abuse and one involving physical injury, and faced retaliation for doing so. The complaint alleges Mognett and other Charter One employees “attempted to protect Defendants’ reputations by keeping both issues and complainants quiet.”³

The complaint also lists systemic problems it says compounded the discrimination claims: a shortage of math teachers, security cameras that were not operational despite assurances to parents, and general understaffing that left disabled students without legally required support. The lawsuit describes Mognett as having been placed in her role “more out of loyalty to Defendants than qualifications” and says she was later demoted and relocated to a different Charter One school in South Carolina, though the school’s board told parents she had accepted a different employment opportunity.³

How the School Has Responded

Charter One denies the allegations. Spokesperson Melody Hudson said the company is “vehemently committed to the success of each and every student” and described Charter One as a “well-respected charter school operator nationwide.” On the state’s findings of disability-related violations, Hudson said the “matters had been resolved” and that “there are always two sides to every story.” The company declined a formal interview with WBTV about corrective changes, and a school representative who had agreed to speak with a reporter cancelled thirty minutes beforehand without rescheduling.²

Earlier, at a February 20, 2024 board meeting where parents raised similar complaints, Hudson said all students were held to the same expectations, that disciplinary actions followed a “fair and equitable process,” and that some allegations presented at the meeting were “factually inaccurate.”⁵

State and Federal Investigations

Independent government investigations have substantiated some of the disability-related claims outside the lawsuit itself. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction found three violations of federal law and state policy protecting students with disabilities at Bonnie Cone Leadership Academy, and four violations at Wake Preparatory School, another Charter One school near Raleigh. Complaints from parents and staff triggered the investigations. One staff member, whose name was redacted, told the state: “I have a list of so many students that I have requested services for that have gone ignored.”²

Separately, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into the school on September 30, 2024, concerning a complaint categorized as disability-related denial of benefits. That investigation was listed as pending as of January 2025.⁶

Where the Case Stands Now

The lawsuit is assigned to U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell. The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint in March 2025. In May 2025, the defendants filed a joint motion to compel arbitration and a separate motion to partially dismiss the amended complaint. In June 2025, Judge Bell granted the motion to compel arbitration as to Susan Hunter’s individual claim and stayed that portion of the case pending the outcome of arbitration, ordering the parties to file status reports every ninety days. As of May 2026, the case remains active, and Hunter filed the most recent status report on May 20, 2026.¹

1
PACER Monitor. Hamilton et al v. Bonnie Cone Leadership Academy, LLC et al
2
WBTV. Lawsuit, State Investigations Find Problems at Chain of North Carolina Charter Schools
3
FITSNews. Hamilton et al v. Bonnie Cone Leadership Academy Complaint
4
WBTV. Parents Sue Charlotte Area Charter School for Discrimination, Harassment
5
QC News. Parents at Huntersville Charter School Concerned About Racial Disparities in Discipline, Bullying
6
U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. Open Investigations