FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The family of a transgender volleyball player has added a South Florida school district as a defendant in a federal lawsuit challenging a 2021 state law banning transgender girls from playing on female sports teams, alleging school officials endangered the family.
Attorneys for the family filed an amended complaint Thursday adding the Broward School Board, the school district’s superintendent and the Florida High School Athletic Association. The school officials had been named as defendants when the lawsuit was initially filed in 2021, but was dropped the following year, leaving only Florida Department of Education and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz as defendants.
“While we cannot comment on pending litigation, Broward County Public Schools remains committed to complying with all state laws,” district spokesman John J. Sullivan said in a statement. “The district assures the community of its commitment to the well-being of all its students and staff.”
U.S. District Judge Roy Altman, a Trump appointee, ruled in November that state officials had the right to enforce a 2021 law banning transgender girls and women from playing on public school teams intended for student athletes identified at birth as woman were identified, but the family allowed it. file an amended complaint.
The law, dubbed “The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” by supporters, was championed and signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for president and has leaned heavily on cultural differences around race, sexual orientation and gender.
The transgender student, a 10th grader at Monarch High School who played in 33 games over the past two seasons, was removed from the team in November after the Broward County School District was notified of her participation by an anonymous tipster.
According to the lawsuit, the student identified as female before elementary school and has used a girl’s name since second grade. At age 11, she started taking testosterone blockers and at age 13, she started taking estrogen to help her go through puberty as a girl. Her gender was also changed on her birth certificate.
The girl’s removal from the volleyball team led to hundreds of Monarch students walking out of class in protest. At the same time, Broward Superintendent Peter Licata suspended or temporarily reassigned five school officials pending an investigation, including the girl’s mother, an information technician at the school.
The Associated Press is not naming the student to protect her privacy.
The initial lawsuit did not identify the student or her school, but the amended complaint said the family lost all privacy when the school district began investigating. The student’s mother released a statement at the time calling her daughter’s outing a “direct attempt to endanger the girl.”
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ rights organization, is supporting the family.
“The reckless indifference to the well-being of our client and her family, and all transgender students across the state, will not be ignored,” the group’s litigation strategist, Jason Starr, said in a statement last month.
