CHCCS leader settles with former student, father who claimed censorship
The story was updated on May 26, 2025.
A lawsuit filed last year by a Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools parent and his son against the superintendent has been dismissed after all three attended court-ordered mediation.
Kevin Klosty and his son Hunter, who graduated in 2023, sued Superintendent Nyah Hamlett in July 2024, seeking damages in excess of $25,000 for what they called “malicious prosecution,” according to court documents.
Hamlett filed a counterclaim, denying the allegations, court documents show.
On May 7, 2025, the Klostys and Hamlett agreed in mediation to dismiss their claims “with prejudice,” meaning the decision is final.
The district paid $35,094.52 for Hamlett’s legal representation in the case, district spokesman Andy Jenks said. The settlement did not require either party to pay the other, he said.
Hamlett alluded to the Klostys in her February decision to leave the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. She will move after June 27 to the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland.
Hamlett declined Monday to comment on the lawsuit. The News & Observer could not reach Kevin Klosty for comment.
Student claims targeted for speaking out
In the lawsuit, Kevin Klosty said his family moved to Chapel Hill to enroll his children in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
Klosty first took issue with the district over its masking and remote-learning policy during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2022, he and his son began to question Hamlett’s leadership, hiring decisions, and other district and East Chapel Hill High School decisions, it says.
The lawsuit says “the high school’s administration made life difficult for Hunter,” then-ECHHS student body vice president, after he spoke at a 2023 school board meeting about Hamlett’s alleged plagiarism, which was reported by The N&O.
Hamlett has rebutted The N&O’s report, which found 35 instances of potential plagiarism and incomplete sources in her 2019 doctoral dissertation for the College of William and Mary. The investigation was prompted by a tip to the newspaper, and Hamlett said she would have the work independently reviewed, but never provided the results of that review.
“Hunter’s comments created a firestorm at East,” his family’s lawsuit says.
“Anonymous online accounts assembled to punish Hunter and his father for airing these views. An online troll compared Hunter, who is Jewish, to Hitler and uniformed Nazis. Another posted information about Kevin’s employer in a thinly veiled attack on the father’s livelihood. East sat silent, largely indifferent to the harassment,” it says.
Hamlett later said in court documents that Kevin Klosty moved closer to her during a school board meeting while Hunter was speaking and “stared me down, smirked and clapped loudly,” making her fear for her family’s safety. She consulted with her staff and police about how to respond if she met the Klostys in public or near her home, work, or place of worship, she said in her response to the lawsuit.
Hunter Klosty met with Catherine Truitt, the state’s former Superintendent of Public Instruction, according to documents obtained by The N&O from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. He also contacted the N.C. State Board of Education’s attorney seeking an investigation into Hamlett, documents show.
Truitt met with Hunter Klosty, but also told him in a Feb. 20, 2023, email that the NCDPI and State Board of Education do not have the authority to fire local school personnel.
She agreed to look into his concerns about whether ECCHS Principal Jesse Casey and his Assistant Principal Jeriel Champion were licensed to work as educators in North Carolina. NCDPI did not provide documents to The N&O showing whether the district was investigated or the outcome of any inquiry.
Casey and Champion were hired in 2022. Public Schools of North Carolina records show both were licensed by the state on July 1, 2022, prior to starting their new jobs.
No-contact order, lawsuits filed
In June 2023, Hunter Klosty was denied his diploma at graduation following an outburst on stage when he cursed at Casey and other district officials before he stopped, pointed his finger at Hamlett, and called her a “plagiarizing [expletive].”
Hamlett’s response to the Klostys’ lawsuit says Hunter Klosty approached cameras set up at the graduation rehearsal on June 9 to “make hostile comments about Dr. Hamlett to the cameras.”
Hamlett had the district’s Chief Operations Officer Andre Stewart stand next to her at graduation “because of her fear that Hunter Klosty would manifest his previous displays of hostility, hatred, and aggression … through the use of physically offensive or harmful contact.”
Hamlett’s security detail at the ceremony placed themselves between her and Kevin Klosty, causing him to stop before reaching her, she said in the latest lawsuit.
The graduation video shows the superintendent starting to fist bump Hunter Klosty as she did other students. She bumped a colleague’s arm instead, and directed her graduation message about dignity and respect to one classmate and “their” family. She did not name the Klostys.
Kevin Klosty jogged toward Hamlett after the ceremony, pointed his finger at her and said “the investigation is going to begin,” according to a UNC police report of the altercation.
Six days later, Hamlett obtained a no-contact order against both men. Hunter got his diploma in the mail June 14, and Hamlett withdrew the no-contact order just before an Aug. 7 hearing.
The latest lawsuit does not dispute what happened at graduation, but says, “Hunter regrets allowing his emotions to get the best of him on graduation day and for profanely addressing CHCCS administrators and Defendant.”
It also denies that Kevin or Hunter Klosty engaged in name calling or personal attacks.
“Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with Kevin and Hunter’s views, Defendant’s use of the civil no-contact order represents a dangerous precedent,” the lawsuit says. “Defendant has given others a roadmap for weaponizing our State’s courts to censor and punish critics. Kevin and Hunter cannot—and will not — stand by for that.”
Hamlett denied nearly all of the lawsuit’s allegations.
This story was originally published May 19, 2025 at 3:26 PM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning it could be brought back in the future. The resolution in the case was final.
