On Tuesday, the Broward County Public Schools in southern Florida suspended an employee who allowed her “transgender” teen to play volleyball as a female. Jessica Norton, a computer information specialist at Monarch High School, where she also coached the female volleyball team, was suspended for violating Florida’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which Governor Ron DeSantis signed in 2021.
The boy, now 16, began taking taking puberty blockers at age 11. He now takes estrogen in an attempt to enhance his female characteristics, but has not yet received any surgical intervention. Norton and her family are plaintiffs in a lawsuit attempting to block the Florida law as a violation of her son’s civil rights.
Florida is one of 24 states forbidding “transgender” athletes from participating in female sports.
The School Board’s Decision
Norton was suspended for 10 days without pay. She will no longer be a computer information specialist, but will be given a job with equal pay and similar responsibilities. The Florida High School Athletic Association fined the school $16,500 for the violation and placed it on probation.
While the fine for the school is bad enough, the coach also put the school in jeopardy of legal action should any student feel she was denied the opportunity to compete due to Norton’s male son being allowed to play on the team.
Howard Hepburn, Broward County Public Schools superintendent, urged the school board to fire Norton for the violation. However, the board found suspension a better option, as only three school-board members agreed that the coach should be fired. One member, Brenda Fam, upset Norton by referring to the “transgender” student as a boy. Fam wanted Norton to face criminal charges, but the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act carries only civil penalties.
In the end, the board voted 5-4 for censure rather than firing.
“Our employee made a choice not to follow the law,” said board member Debbi Hixon. “It was a first offense. We would not terminate someone on their first offense.”
“I Did Nothing Wrong”
“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 in the wake of the decision.
Norton believes she did nothing wrong. She argues that because the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act is a civil law, only institutions can be held liable, not individuals. She further claims that she and her family have already been through enough:
Nobody can understand what we’ve been through. We’ve been through death threats, harassing phone calls, letters sent to our house, and this was all because [of] something that they did, it wasn’t something that I did. I was protecting my child. Again, I did nothing wrong.
Investigators interviewed three teammates of the child involved. The girls said they were not forced to change or shower with Norton’s son.
Norton has been on paid leave since November, when the incident occurred. Her offspring, who was the student body president and a homecoming princess prior to the uproar, now attends school online.
While Norton claims to have done nothing wrong, the family’s participation in the lawsuit challenging the Florida law implies that allowing her son to play on the girls’ volleyball team was a publicity move above all else.
However, the first thing she did wrong was to allow her son to go down the toxic road of “transgenderism.”
