Florida school board suspends employee who allowed her transgender daughter to

Plantation, Florida (AP) A Florida school staffer who allowed her transgender daughter to play on her high school’s girls volleyball team has been suspended for 10 days after the district board found on Tuesday that she violated state law but determined that dismissing her would be too punitive.

The Broward County school board voted 5-4 to suspend Jessica Norton’s job at Monarch High School, where her 16-year-old daughter has played varsity volleyball for the past two seasons. She is also no longer able to work as a computer information specialist and must be offered a job with similar income and responsibility.

The board determined that Norton’s activities violated the state’s Fairness in Women’s athletics Act, which prohibits transgender females from participating in girls high school athletics.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature approved it in 2021, despite objections from the Broward County Board of Commissioners.”Our employee made the choice not to follow the law,” said board member Debbi Hixon, who proposed the censure. However, she stated, “It was a first offence. We would not dismiss someone on their first offence.”

Norton, who was removed from the school when the infraction was detected in November and placed on paid leave, described the vote as a “incorrect decision” but said it was preferable to being fired. She stated she was unsure if she would accept the punishment and return to work. She wanted to discuss it with her daughter, who had left the school despite being class president and homecoming princess.

Perhaps they could return together, she suggested.

“I did not do anything wrong.” “Nothing,” Norton replied.In recent years, the treatment of transgender youngsters has become a contentious subject across the country. Florida is one of at least 25 states that have banned gender-affirming care for minors, as well as one of at least 24 states that have prohibited transgender women and girls from participating in some women’s and girls’ sports. The Nortons are the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit seeking to block Florida’s law as a violation of their daughter’s civil rights. It is still pending.

During Tuesday’s hour-long debate, Hixon proposed Norton’s punishment after casting the deciding vote against an earlier motion, which called for a five-day suspension with no change in jobs. She said that was not severe enough. It failed by a 5-4 vote.

But, Hixon argued, firing Norton was too harsh for a seven-year employee with sterling evaluations and a caring reputation among students.

“This isn’t somebody who abused or harmed children,” Hixon said. “This is really about not following the law.”

Still, Hixon said, Norton put the district in a legally difficult spot by falsely attesting her child was born female on her state athletic eligibility form. The Florida athletic association fined Monarch $16,500 for violating the act, put the school on probation, and the district could be sued under the act if another student believes she was kept off the volleyball team and lost scholarship opportunities because of Norton’s daughter.

Hixon said she wanted Norton moved from her job as a computer information specialist because in that position she could learn of another transgender student who was playing girls sports and might not report that to administrators.

“That puts us as a school district in a bad place,” Hixon said.

The four other “yes” votes believed a five-day suspension or no punishment was appropriate but agreed to the 10-day ban as a compromise they could live with. They pointed to previous three-, five- and 10-day suspensions that were given to employees who had physically or verbally abused students as evidence Norton was being punished too harshly.

“I believe this case is unique,” member Allen Zeman said. “You can correctly surmise there have been problems with how we (the board) have dealt with it. You can also correctly surmise that rules and laws have been broken. But I think it is important that we come up with a solution that is consistent with the others.”

At least three board members supported Superintendent Howard Hepburn’s recommendation that Norton be fired because she had knowingly violated the law. Hepburn had overridden a committee’s recommendation that Norton be suspended 10 days.

Member Torey Alston said he believes the past suspensions cited by Norton’s supporters were too lax and shouldn’t preclude them from firing her. He said the board was sending the message that it would “go soft” on employees who violate statutes simply because they disagree with them.

“I have zero tolerance for breaking the law,” Alston said.

Norton and her husband stormed out of the meeting when member Brenda Fam repeatedly called her child a boy. Fam argued that Norton should face criminal charges though the Fairness act only carries civil penalties aimed at violating schools. She compared Norton to a parent who falsifies an address to get their child into a better school, an act that is a crime under Florida law.

Fam said she supports the Fairness Act because it prevents biological girls from having to compete with transgender females who may be larger and stronger. Norton and her supporters believe that her daughter has been taking puberty blockers and oestrogen for several years and has no physical advantages over her teammates or opposition teams.

“This was not a question about her son or her family, it was an issue about what she did as an employee and how she harmed others,” Fam told reporters. She later denied misgendering Norton’s child, claiming she was paraphrasing a newspaper report.

After the meeting, Norton claimed that Fam purposefully misgendered her child to irritate her.

“It works. I don’t believe that a school board member should misgender youngsters,” Norton said. “It’s a horrible thing.”