A Florida school employee has been suspended for letting her son compete against female high school volleyball players.
The Broward County School Board voted 5-4 on Tuesday to suspend Monarch High School Computer Information Specialist Jessica Norton for 1o days without pay for letting her 16-year-old son compete on the school’s female varsity volleyball team for at least two years.
“The board found that Norton’s actions violated the state’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which bars transgender females from playing girls high school sports,” according to the New York Post. “Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature adopted it in 2021.”
As part of the suspension, Norton may no longer work as a computer information specialist but is entitled to receive a job with similar pay and responsibility.
“Our employee made a choice not to follow the law, [but] it was a first offense [and] we would not terminate someone on their first offense,” board member Debbi Hixon reportedly said during Tuesday’s hearing.
#HappeningNow: The Broward County, Florida school board is debating whether to fire an employee whose transgender daughter competed in girls’ high school volleyball, allegedly in violation of state law.
Jessica Norton is an information specialist at the district’s Monarch High… pic.twitter.com/wcQhWBXktr
— Crisis in the Classroom (@CITClassroom) July 30, 2024
The drama surrounding Norton’s son started last November when Broward County School Board member Daniel Foganholi, a DeSantis appointee, reported receiving an “anonymous tip” that a male was playing on the Monarch High School’s female volleyball team.
Norton was then removed from her post and placed on paid leave after the board investigated and learned of both her son’s activities and also her decision to identify her son as “female” on school records.
Norton is now adamant that she 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,” she told local station WTVJ.
“There is no way around it, I’m being punished because I am the parent of a transgender student,” she said in a separate statement to the Human Rights Campaign. “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,” she added.
FYI, she doesn’t have a daughter — she has a son.
JUST NOW! Jessica Norton and her media entourage STORM OUT out of the Broward School Board meeting after Board Member Brenda Fam calls her out on her deceptions!
Norton is facing termination for tampering with records to allow her biological male child to play in girls sports. pic.twitter.com/4gkRbOSwog
— Chris Nelson (@ReOpenChris) July 30, 2024
Norton has also claimed that the school ruined her son’s life.
“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 [at the start of the investigation], I watched as that light was extinguished,” she testified during a board hearing last month.
“She walked out of the front door of the school, distraught, never to be heard from again—203 days later, no one cared. School administration claims to care about all students but they don’t care about my child. 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. But you know what, it’s alright if I’m the villain in their story because I am the hero in my daughter’s story,” she added.
Overall, Norton got lucky. Some board members like Brenda Fam and Lori Alhadeff wanted to fire her.
“I think what happened is criminal in my opinion,” Fam said in a statement.
“And if we do not terminate, then others would then be left to believe that they can, too, break the law, and I have a problem with that,” Alhadeff, the board’s chair, added.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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