Florida high school bosses are CLEARED after letting transgender girl play on an all girls’ volleyball team – despite breaking state law

Bosses at a Florida high school have been acquitted of allowing a transgender girl to play on a female volleyball team despite allegedly breaking state law.

Principal James Cecil, Assistant Principal Kenneth May and Athletic Director Dione Hester were investigated by the school district over the controversy.

The staff was reassigned after it emerged last year that a transgender girl had been accepted to Monarch High School’s girls team for two seasons.

The student’s mother, Jessica Norton, an information management specialist at the school, and interim volleyball coach Alex Burgess, were also transferred to a non-school site pending the investigation.

“The three employees will resume their responsibilities effective Wednesday, May 22, 2024,” Keyla Concepción, spokesperson for the school district’s Special Investigations Unit, told the newspaper. South Florida Sun Herald of Cecil, May and Hester.

‘The investigation into other aspects is still ongoing.’

Florida’s Fairness in Women’s Sport Act requires male student athletes to play on teams that correspond to their biologically assigned sex at birth.

The student’s parents filed a lawsuit against the legislation, revealing that their daughter played on the girls’ team.

The complaint states that their daughter’s gender on her birth certificate has been changed.

The Florida High School Athletic Association fined Monarch High $16,500 and barred the student from participating in further volleyball seasons.

The fine represents $500 for each of the 33 volleyball matches the student played in during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.

The decision sparked an angry reaction at the school, with protests in solidarity with the athlete involved.

Students gathered on the football field, waving flags and signs that read “trans lives matter.”

Principal James Cecil (pictured) and four other staffers were reassigned following “allegations of inappropriate student participation in sports,” but have since been cleared by the school district’s investigation

Monarch High School assistant principal Kenneth May (left) and teacher and athletic director Dione Hester (right) were also reassigned

Jessica Norton, an information management specialist and volleyball coach at the school, identified herself as the child’s mother

Norton identified herself as the student’s mother amid the commotion.

“There is a long history in this country of people getting out against their will. Forced outings, especially when a child is involved, are a direct attempt to endanger the person going out,” she said.

“We kindly ask everyone to respect our family’s privacy and give our family the space we need to talk about our experiences on our own terms and timeline.”

“I think this completely ruined her life,” volleyball team captain Jordan Campbell said of the unnamed student.

“I played with her and I think anyone who thinks they have an opinion about her but doesn’t even know her has no idea who she is. “She was the sweetest person anyone has ever met,” she said NBC6.

Officials later announced they were expanding their personnel investigation after it emerged the student had played on the girls’ team in high school.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law in 2021 banning transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports teams in public schools.

“In Florida, girls will play girls’ sports and boys will play boys’ sports,” DeSantis said as he signed the bill. “We’re going to make sure that’s the reality.”

The statute says that athletic teams or sports designated for women, women or girls are not open to male students.

It adds that “a statement of a student’s biological sex on the student’s official birth certificate shall be deemed to have correctly stated the student’s biological sex at birth.

Participation of transgender girls and women on girls’ and women’s sports teams in public schools is prohibited under Florida state law

But students protested the decision to remove the girl from her team and organized several protests at Monarch High School

The school was fined $16,500 by the Florida High School Athletic Association, $500 for each of the 33 volleyball games the student played in over the past two seasons.

At the time, the district’s superintendent, Peter Licata, claimed the reinstatement was “not an indication of discipline.”

He added that there would be “new processes” for athlete eligibility in the future.

“We will conduct an additional investigation to ensure that everyone is eligible for the sport they play, in all aspects, level, grades and so on,” he said.