On Tuesday, a South Florida school district decided to suspend an employee for 10 days. Jessica Norton, an information management technician and volunteer junior varsity volleyball coach at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, was accused of allowing her transgender daughter to play on a girls’ high school volleyball team during 2022 and 2023, against state laws.
The Broward County school board voted 5-4 to approve Norton’s suspension. Norton will be reassigned to a different job after serving the suspension. Superintendent Howard Hepburn had suggested terminating Norton, but the board majority endorsed a district committee’s recommendation for suspension instead.
Norton expressed mixed feelings after the meeting. She stated, “Obviously, I don’t want to get fired from my job. I love my job. But I don’t think that the decision for any suspension was correct.”
One attendee spoke out in defense of Norton, calling the teacher a ‘crowd favorite.’ pic.twitter.com/Yj3gytlRkE
— Crisis in the Classroom (@CITClassroom) July 30, 2024
In November, Norton and several other staff members were reassigned to non-school sites pending an investigation. This came after district officials discovered her transgender daughter played on the school’s varsity volleyball team. Norton was the only staff member not cleared of wrongdoing.
The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, signed into law in 2021 by Governor Ron DeSantis, prohibits transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports teams at public schools in Florida.
In December, athletic officials placed Monarch High on a one-year administrative probation and fined the school $16,500 for allowing the transgender girl to play on the team.
A three-page letter from the Florida High School Athletic Association to Monarch High’s interim principal accused the school of violating the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act and an association bylaw. The transgender student participated in 33 matches during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 volleyball seasons, according to the letter.
The letter also stated that Norton’s daughter, now attending school virtually, is banned from playing sports for any member school until November 2024.
In March, Norton’s lawyers argued that she was only a volunteer junior varsity volleyball coach and had no involvement in the try-out and selection process for the varsity team, nor in running practices or coaching games.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Norton left the room after a board member repeatedly referred to her daughter as “her son” while reading from a state Department of Education report.
Norton is undecided about returning to Monarch High School. She mentioned, “I loved my job, and I loved my students. I loved everything about it. We’ll see what happens,” adding that she would discuss her future at the school with her daughter.
The law in Florida mandates that public secondary school and college sports teams be designated based on “biological sex,” defined as the sex listed on a student’s official birth certificate at or near the time of birth.
This incident in Florida is part of a broader national legal pushback against transgender students’ participation in school sports, particularly in states led by Republicans.