Florida school officials have been reassigned and the inclusion of a transgender player on a high school girls’ volleyball team that led to a student walkout is now being questioned whether the school violated a 2021 state law governing sports and gender. This is the focus of the investigation.
Jessica Norton, the mother of a transgender athlete and one of the Monarch High School employees targeted in the investigation, is speaking out.
Broward County officials told ABC News that Norton and several other school employees, including the principal and assistant principal, have been suspended pending the outcome of a district investigation into allegations of inappropriate student participation in sports. It is said that the students were transferred to a work site other than the school.
“We will continue to follow state law and take appropriate action based on the findings of our investigation,” the school district said in a statement. “We are committed to providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for all students.”
The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act of 2021, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prohibits transgender girls from playing on women’s sports teams.
Norton said she and her family have received an “outpouring of love and support” from the community since being reassigned.
“It’s been such a joy for our family to see the outpouring of resistance and love in our community. May the light guide us through this darkness. We see you all. We want you to know that we are very grateful to you,” Norton said in a statement. Her legal representation in the Human Rights Campaign.
But Ms Norton said the controversy over her daughter’s participation had taken away her family’s “privacy, sense of privacy, sense of safety, right to self-determination.”
“We have a long history in this country of forcing people out against their will, and the forced removal of children, in particular, is a direct attempt to endanger the people being sent out,” Norton said. Ta.
Norton and his family are behind a lawsuit filed against the Transgender Sports Act of 2021. Norton and her husband are using only their first names in the lawsuit, and her daughter was identified by her initials.
The law states that students assigned as male as listed on their birth certificate cannot participate in athletic teams or sports for women and girls in public schools and universities.
Proponents of such restrictions on trans sport participation argue that biological differences between men and women are necessary to maintain “equity” in women’s athletic activities. At least 23 states have restrictions on transgender participation in sports, according to the Athletic Advancement Project.
“As a father of two daughters, I want my daughters, and all girls in Florida, to compete on a level playing field for the opportunities available to young women in sports.” DeSantis said at the time of signing the bill.
Critics of trans sports regulations argue that these laws exclude and discriminate against transgender people and that the biology of sports performance is complex and cannot be easily flattened by gender. are doing.
Several national and international sports league governing bodies, including the International Olympic Committee, require transgender women to meet certain hormone levels if they want to play on sports teams with cisgender women.
At the time of the lawsuit, Norton’s daughter was playing on her middle school’s girls soccer team and also in a girls’ volleyball league, according to the lawsuit.
“Sports are a source of pride for her and a major source of social and friendship networks,” the suit states, highlighting the positive impact sports can have on students’ lives. has been done.
At the age of 11, at the recommendation of an endocrinologist, the athlete began taking hormone blockers to suspend the developmental effects of testosterone and prevent him from entering male puberty.
The student then began taking estrogen for feminizing hormone therapy, which she “will continue to take for the rest of her life, allowing her to live as the girl/woman she is,” the complaint states. has been written.
There is no clear data on whether transgender women have a physiological advantage.
One study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that after suppressing testosterone for a year, trans women ran 9% faster on average.
Another study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found that there is no direct or consistent research suggesting that transgender women have an athletic advantage at any stage of their transition.
Preventing transgender youth from participating in school sports could negatively impact the physical and mental health of a population already at risk, experts wrote in a recent JAMA Pediatrics editorial. . Transgender youth lose the developmental benefits of sports participation.
U.S. District Judge Roy Altman rejected a legal challenge by the Nortons, citing physiological differences between the sexes, but the plaintiffs have until mid-January to file an amended complaint.
Students walked out of class on Nov. 28 in support of the players and school officials under investigation.
A Monarch University student who is transgender and asked to remain anonymous for privacy reasons told ABC News that laws restricting transgender students are “horrible.”
She said it “influences how others perceive us on a daily basis.”
Another Monarch High School student, who requested anonymity for privacy reasons, told ABC News the situation was “heartbreaking.”
“We’ve been seeing that trend gradually over the last few years,” the student said, referring to laws affecting the state’s LGBTQ community.
She went on to say, “The queer and trans community here, and our city, and our county, are so beautiful and so large…This situation has shaken up many students here, and it seems on the surface. It’s much tougher than that.”
District officials declined further comment.
ABC News reached out to other school employees who were reassigned.