A mother who works for the Broward County Public Schools may not get fired after she allowed her daughter, who is trans, to play on a school’s girls’ volleyball team.
On Tuesday, the board of the district located near Miami came to the conclusion that they’re unlikely to fire information specialist and JV volleyball coach Jessica Norton.
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“School administration claims to care about all students but they don’t care about my child,” Norton said. “All of them should be embarrassed that they’re in charge of the lives of children seeing as they had no problem destroying the life of my daughter.”
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The school she coaches at, Monarch High School, put her on leave after they found she was violating the state’s ban on transgender students participating in school sports that was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in 2021, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. The state fined the school $16,500 for Norton’s daughter’s participation.
Superintendent Howard Hepburn had recommended that Norton be terminated. However, the Board largely disagreed. They instead opted to discuss suspensions ranging from five to ten days.
“I appreciate a mom fighting for the rights of her child, I really appreciate that, but this crossed a lot of different lines,” said Board member Debbi Hixon. “Her protecting her child, her daughter, affected so many other people and children.”
Eventually, the Board went with a suggestion by Board member Torey Alston that they look into previous examples of legal violations from other employees within the last five years and compare punishments to see which one would best suit this case.
Norton has been on paid leave since November and told NBC Miami, “It was nice to hear that some people understand it’s not a black and white thing.”
None of the team members interviewed appeared bothered by the fact that Norton’s daughter was transgender. They were content to play with her, but now her daughter is isolated from her peers as she’s in online school.
The family was suing the state over the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. They are represented by the Human Rights Campaign. Norton’s daughter was barred from playing on any girls’ teams until November of 2024.
“She’s becoming more back to normal,” Norton said. “[But] she knows all of her friends are going to start school next month, and she’s not going to be there.”
