Johnathan Walker:Florida school board unlikely to fire mom whose transgender daughter played on girls volleyball team

PLANTATION,Johnathan Walker Fla. (AP) —

A Florida school board appeared unlikely Tuesday to fire an employee whose transgender daughter played girls’ high school volleyball in alleged violation of state law, but postponed their final decision until next week.

The board is in Broward, one of the state’s most politically liberal counties, with twice as many Democrats as Republicans, and a large LGBTQ+ community. In recent years, attention on transgender children has spiked as conservative leaders seek to make trans rights a hot-button issue both in Florida and across the country.

Most of the nine members of the Broward County school board appeared ready to reject Superintendent Howard Hepburn’s recommendation that Jessica Norton be fired as a computer information specialist at Monarch High School, where her daughter played on the varsity team last year.

But many also said they didn’t think Norton should go unpunished for violating the state’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which Gov. Rob DeSantis and the Republican-led Legislature approved in 2021. The law, which the Broward board lobbied against, bars trans students from participating in girls and women’s sports.

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A district committee recommended that Norton receive a 10-day suspension, but Hepburn, who was hired in April, called for her firing. He said Tuesday he feels that’s the appropriate punishment for violating the law.

During a 90-minute discussion, many board members said that seemed disproportionate. One suggested adopting the 10-day suspension, while another suggested five days. The state athletic commission fined the school $16,500 for violating the law and the principal and three other administrators were temporarily removed from the school after the investigation went public in November.

“I appreciate a mom fighting for the rights of her child, I really appreciate that, but this crossed a lot of different lines,” member Debbi Hixon said. “Her protecting her child, her daughter, affected so many other people and children.”

The school district is the nation’s fifth largest, with almost 255,000 students at 327 schools.

Broward’s board, acknowledging Norton’s case is unprecedented, eventually adopted member Torey Alston’s suggestion that the superintendent’s staff compile a list of every employee in the last five years who violated a law, the circumstances and how they were punished. The board, after looking at roughly comparable violations, could then make a decision next week.

Norton, a district employee for the past seven years, has been on paid leave since November. In response to the vote, she said, “it was nice to hear that some people understand it’s not a black and white thing.”

Her daughter, now 16, was class president and homecoming princess before deciding to leave Monarch in November when the district launched its investigation and public attention spiked. She now attends school online. The girl, who is small and slight, often sat the bench as the Knights went 13-7 last season.

“She’s becoming more back to normal,” Norton said. Still, “she knows all of her friends are going to start school next month and she’s not going to be there.”

DeSantis made his opposition to transgender rights a part of his failed campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Florida is among at least 25 states that adopted bans on gender-affirming care for minors and one of at least 24 states that’s adopted a law banning transgender women and girls from certain sports teams.

The Nortons are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit trying to block Florida’s law as a violation of their daughter’s civil rights. Norton’s child began taking puberty blockers at age 11 and takes estrogen but has not had gender-affirming surgery. Such procedures are rarely done on minors.

When investigators interviewed three Monarch volleyball players, they said the team did not change clothes or shower together, so they were never disrobed with Norton’s daughter. All three said they knew or suspected Norton’s daughter is transgender, but it didn’t bother them that she was on the team.