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Mother of transgender athlete in Broward has disciplinary action postponed

Mother of transgender athlete in Broward has disciplinary action postponed

Jessica and Gary Norton, parents of a transgender student and volleyball player who formerly attended Monarch High School, leave a Broward County School Board meeting at Plantation High School, Tuesday, July 23, 2024. The board postponed its vote on the mother’s employment status with the school district for another week. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Joe Cavaretta

The decision to fire a Broward Public Schools employee who is the mother of a transgender student at the center of an ongoing sports scandal was again delayed by school board members. At Tuesday’s meeting, board members decided they needed additional information.

The employee in question is Jessica Norton, an information specialist and JV volleyball coach at Monarch High School. She was fired from her job along with several other employees after an investigation was launched last November by then-Superintendent Peter Licata over “allegations of inappropriate student participation in sports.” Norton’s daughter, who is transgender, had competed on the school’s volleyball team in violation of a state law known as the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which prohibits female students born male from playing on female sports teams.

Last month, Norton spoke publicly for the first time at a school board meeting, telling members she wasn’t there to “beg” for her job but to talk about the “reckless actions of the district’s leadership” and the effect they had on her family and daughter. She attended Tuesday’s meeting but did not speak during the public comment section.

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Read more: Growing up transgender in DeSantis’ Florida: How this Broward teen’s life was turned upside down

School board members spent nearly an hour and a half during the meeting exchanging questions about the Broward District Special Investigative Unit investigation and requesting additional information.

Board member Jeff Holness questioned investigators about whether they referred to Norton’s daughter as “it” during the investigation.

But researchers said this only happened after a joking conversation with the mother, in which the researcher started a sentence with the word “it.”

However, Michael Rajner, chairman of the Broward County Human Rights Board, read from a transcript of a conversation between Detective Thomas Honan of the Broward District Special Investigative Unit and James Cecil, director of Monarch.

“’You had no idea you were dealing with a biological male,’” Rajner read aloud to the board during public comment, attributing it to Honan.

During the meeting it became clear that there was no consensus on whether Norton should be fired, suspended or face other consequences.

Board member Torey Alston said he had already decided whether to suspend or fire Norton, but he wanted to see a data-based decision on past actions by the district where an employee had violated the law. He suggested waiting to make a decision until they had more information.

“I would like to see the board actually see a list of individuals who violated state law, what those actions were or the actions that the board took versus what the recommended action was from the district,” he said. Alston did not say whether he supported suspension or termination.

Holness strongly opposed postponing the discussion due to some requests from the board members.

“I am not in favor of delaying this,” he said. “I think this family has suffered enough. I think the child has suffered enough.”

District 7 Representative Nora Rupert, who was not at the meeting but called in, said she opposed the proposed 10-day suspension and termination of the Broward employee and mother.

But Vice Chair Debra Hixon said Norton’s actions “crossed a lot of different lines.”

“She didn’t understand the gravity of what she did,” Hixon said. “Her protection of her child, her daughter, affected so many other people and children.”

Hixon originally proposed a 10-day suspension and that Norton not hold a position where she could change records. Part of the complaint against Norton was that she showed the district her daughter’s birth certificate, which listed her as female, even though she was born male.

Board member Sarah Leonardi said the legislation enacted in recent years is confusing and warned that the district will have difficulty filtering out documents that may contain incorrect or “falsified” information.

According to Brenda Fam, it is unfair and impossible to place the responsibility for investigating every aspect of a student’s identity on the school district.

“What happened here is that we were lied to and we trust what we were told. And we believe that until someone gives us the reason to doubt, to not believe,” Fam said.

After additional debate on whether the decision should be postponed, the board adopted Alston’s recommendation and will resume the discussion starting next week.

Norton left the meeting after the board postponed a decision on her fate within the district.