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“There is no way around it, I’m being punished because I am the parent of a transgender student,” Jessica Norton said in a statement to the media.
The mother of a trans athlete whofaced termination from aFlorida school district will keep a job. But Jessica Norton was removed from her current position and faces a 10-day suspension.
That’s despite playing no role in allowing her to stay on a girl’s volleyball team.
“There is no way around it, I’m being punished because I am the parent of a transgender student,” Norton said in a statement to the media.
“While I can finally breathe a sigh of relief that this 239-day investigation is finally over, ending the constant scrutiny and allowing me to keep my job, I am still frustrated with the decision the school board made today. Every action I took to support my daughter was as her parent, not as an employee of Monarch High School — it was never my decision whether my daughter played volleyball.”
The Broward County School Board suspended Norton without pay for violating Florida’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, a law signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisin 2021 that prohibits transgender female athletes from playing scholastic sports on teams based on their gender identity.
The district last yearlaunched an investigation based on an anonymous complaint to School Board member Daniel Foganholi. Notably, DeSantis appointed Foganholi to and several other members of the School Board after suspending most of the board’s elected members.
The district reassigned several Monarch High employees, including the principal. But Norton, an information specialist at Monarch High, was the only district employee who faced termination. She challenged the termination, receiving legal assistance from the Human Rights Campaign.
The board ultimately decided she can keep a school district job, and must be moved from her current position to one that does not handle any student information.
“The board’s decision today continues to hold Mrs. Norton responsible for actions she was justified in taking as a parent. There is no question that throughout the course of this investigation, the Broward County School District has not only abdicated its responsibility to the safety and wellbeing of Mrs. Norton’s daughter, but has retaliated against an employee simply for advocating for their child,” said Jason Starr, Human Rights Campaign litigation strategist. “The LGBTQ+ inclusive policies that had become a foundational part of the culture of Broward County Schools have been completely abandoned — LGBTQ+ students and families are not safe in this school district and their treatment of the Norton’s have made that clear. The Human Rights Campaign will continue to support this family and fight on their behalf.”
Notably, Norton and her husband, Gary, had filed a federal lawsuit challenging Florida’s trans sports ban, but a judgein November upheld the law. Weeks later, the district took action against district employees for allowing the girl to remain on Monarch High’s girls’ volleyball team.
Norton last month spoke out for the first time at a Broward County School Board meeting about her termination, though officials tabled the matter to explore legal issues.
“My daughter was flourishing at Monarch, I saw the light in her eyes gleam with future plans of organizing and attending prom, participating and leading senior class traditions and speaking at graduation—203 days ago, I watched as that light was extinguished,” Noron said at the meeting. “She walked out of the front door of the school, distraught, never to be heard from again."
LGBTQ+ advocacy groups this weekend announced theymobilize voters to retake seats on the Broward County School Board currently held by DeSantis appointees.
