Florida mom of trans student sues school district, claiming retaliation and violation of rights

Jessica Norton, a Florida school employee and mother of a transgender daughter, is suing the Broward County schools and the Florida State Department of Education, saying they violated her rights by investigating and ultimately disciplining her in retaliation for filing an earlier lawsuit challenging the state’s trans-exclusionary sports law.

Norton had been an employee at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek since 2017; the school is part of the Broward County School District. She was hired as a library media clerk and was promoted to information specialist in 2022, and she received positive reviews along the way, according to the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. She became a volleyball coach at the school in 2021. Her trans daughter, D.N., played volleyball for the school briefly, but Norton did not coach her daughter’s team. D.N. had participated in girls’ sports since elementary school.

In 2021, Florida enacted a law barring trans girls from girls’ sports in public schools. Jessica Norton and her husband, Gary Norton, quickly filed a suit challenging the law. To protect their privacy and that of their children, the suit did not use their full names. The suit was dismissed in last November, and the Broward school board began an investigation into Jessica Norton soon after. School officials contended that she had violated that law, even though it can only be enforced against schools, not individuals.

“On information and belief, the Defendants interpreted the Court’s November 6 order as permission to take retaliatory action against Ms. Norton for her family’s decision to invoke their rights under Title IX and the Constitution,” the new suit says. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is the federal law banning sex discrimination in education.

In a November 27 meeting, school officials told Jessica Norton that she had violated 37 requirements for Florida educators, without specifying what she had done to violate them. They reassigned her to warehousing services and told her not to return to Monarch High School unless directed to do so by Craig Kowalski, chief of the school district’s investigative unit. The situation was soon publicized across local and national media, even though investigations of employees are supposed to remain confidential.

“I’ve been through the wringer as far as this investigation,” Jessica Norton said in a recent exclusive interview with The Advocate. “That day, I was told that the investigation was going to be 100 percent confidential and that nobody would know what was going on unless I told them. I left [my daughter] at school because they promised me she would be safe. Within two or three hours of me being home, it was on the news, along with my name and the other people involved. The school board did a press conference with the superintendent, and you know, it was on every news outlet in South Florida and apparently everywhere else.”

“In the days and weeks following the announcement of the Investigation, Ms. Norton and her family endured traumatic stress as the result of anonymous obscene voicemails and text messages, surveillance by neighbors and media, and online harassment,” her suit says. “Out of fear for their physical safety, Ms. Norton’s family had a police car parked outside of their home for several weeks.”

D.N. stopped attending school that day and has been taking classes virtually since. Her mother says no one from the Broward County schools has inquired about D.N.’s well-being.

The investigation and disciplinary actions violated Jessica Norton’s rights under Title IX and the First Amendment, according to the suit. She seeks compensatory and punitive damages, and to bar the school district and the state from taking action against her.

In the suit, she is represented by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation — the educational arm of HRC — and law firm of Arnold & Porter. Named as defendants are the Broward County School Board, the Florida State Department of Education, Broward Superintendent Howard Hepburn, Kowalski, and several other Broward officials.

“For the past eight months, my family has lived in a constant state of limbo and uncertainty — this abusive investigation has added unimaginable stress to our lives,” Norton said in a press release announcing the suit. “At every step of the process, I have been disregarded by the district both as a parent and dedicated employee. I had to sit through an interview where the special investigative unit detectives insisted on referring to my daughter as my son, using he/him pronouns — refusing to use her legal gender — and refusing to use her legal name. I had to read materials in the investigation in which the same detectives referred to my daughter as ‘it.’ District leadership tried to ruin my life, but instead they destroyed the life of an innocent 16-year-old girl.”

“What this school district has put this family through is cruel and immoral,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in the release. “The Broward County School District has failed at every step to provide Jessica Norton and her daughter with the protection and due process they deserve, let alone any dignity or respect — the Nortons deserve justice. The Nortons were living their lives until the district thrust them into a biased, inflammatory investigation. Jessica Norton isn't just courageous — she’s the kind of parent every child deserves. She stood against a system that weaponized her love for her child against her livelihood.”