After months of controversy and deliberation, a Florida high school staffer has been suspended over her transgender child’s participation in girls’ sports, as the debate around trans participation in women’s sports continues to rage across the state.
School Board Vote
The Broward County School Board in Florida has voted to suspend a school staff member who allowed her transgender daughter to compete on the Monarch High School volleyball team.
Jessica Norton will be suspended for 10 days for violating state law, in particular, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which states that transgender women cannot compete in female teams or against female players in high school sports.
“Our employee made a choice not to follow the law,” board member Debbi Hixon told the Associated Press following the board meeting on Tuesday.
Superintendent Howard Hepburn recommended that Norton be fired for legal violations, and three board members agreed with the recommendation.
However, the final board decision acknowledged that a full termination would be too harsh, given it was Norton’s first offense. “We would not terminate someone on their first offense,” said Hixon. The final vote was 5-4.
Many suspected that Norton could lose her job in the wake of last year’s discovery that her 16-year-old transgender daughter had played for the girl’s volleyball team for two seasons.
Norton, an information management technician, was also a volunteer junior varsity volleyball coach at Monarch High School, though she denied having any “role, responsibility, or authority” in the team selection process.
The Florida High School Athletic Association launched an investigation of the situation last year, concluding their findings with a $16,500 fine for the school – $500 for every game the student participated in.
“I mean, obviously I don’t want to get fired from my job, I love my job, but I don’t think the decision for any suspension was correct,” Norton told NBC South Florida.
However, other board members remain firm on the decision, given that Norton’s actions technically broke state laws. “She knew what the law was, she made a decision not to follow the law, and that needs to have consequence to it,” one unnamed board member said during a recording of the board meeting.
Student Walkouts and Staff Reassignments
Many at the school appeared to disagree with the athletic association’s findings, which prompted two student walkouts in protest last December and led to the reassignment of staffers involved in the case.
Florida’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act was signed into law in 2021 by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a central figure in the state and nation’s ongoing “culture war” against trans people’s participation in women’s sports.
The law and the investigation by the athletic association have had a significant negative impact on Norton and her daughter’s life. “There is a long history in this country of outing people against their will — forced outing, particularly of a child, is a direct attempt to endanger the person being outed,” Norton claimed in a statement published via Human Rights Watch.
Norton’s daughter, who remains unnamed in the media, was previously a class president and homecoming princess. Now, she attends school virtually due to the stress of the ongoing investigation and media attention.
Now, her child has been banned from playing for any sports team that is a member of the Florida High School Athletic Association until November 2024, according to a letter from the association.
Norton has not confirmed whether she will return to her position at Monarch High School following the end of the 10-day suspension or whether her daughter will return to in-person attendance.
She and her husband also stormed out during Tuesday’s board meeting when one board member repeatedly referred to their daughter as their “son,” while reading a state Department of Education report.
“I don’t think that a school board member should be misgendering children,” Norton said later, according to the Associate Press. “It’s a horrible thing.”
Florida is now one of 26 states that have legally restricted trans participation in sports to varying degrees. 23 have specifically barred trans students from joining public school sports teams that reflect their gender identity, according to ESPN.
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Chiarascura.
