A staff member of the Florida Monarch High School was suspended this week for allowing her transgender daughter to play on the girls’ volleyball team, claiming that she violated a 2021 state law.
In a vote of 5-4, the Broward County School Board in Florida decided to suspend Jessica Norton for 10 days without pay instead of terminating her, as the district superintendent suggested, NBC News reported. The board claimed that she violated the state’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act that bars transgender girls and women from competing in girls and women’s sports teams.
“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 said after Tuesday’s board meeting, according to NBC South Florida.
“She knew what the law was, she made a decision not to follow the law, and that needs to have consequence to it,” a school board member said during the meeting Tuesday. The Broward County School Board did not provide additional comment.
The suspension follows the Florida High School Athletic Association’s conclusion of an investigation into the student’s participation on the girls team in December, which resulted in a $16,500 fine for the school — $500 for every game the student participated in. The student was also barred from playing on any school team for a year.
The school’s principal and other staffers were removed from their positions and reassigned to non-school sites amid the investigation, prompting turmoil and outrage as students staged a walkout in protest.
Florida’s Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr., had praised the decision to remove the principal and staffers, and also lauded the 2021 Florida law targeting transgender athletes.
“[W]e will not tolerate any school that violates this law,” Diaz said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter. “We applaud the swift action taken by the [Florida High School Athletic Association] to ensure there are serious consequences for this illegal behavior.”
Norton criticized the state’s actions at the time, claiming that it outed her daughter.
“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 said in a statement through Human Rights Watch.
Florida is among at least 23 states that have passed laws barring transgender students from playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity in recent years, according to ESPN.