Students at a South Florida high school were compelled to walk out of class again Wednesday to show support for a transgender athlete and the faculty who were removed from their jobs after the student was allowed to play on the girls’ volleyball team.
Broward County Public Schools on Monday reassigned Monarch High School’s principal James Cecil, assistant principal Kenneth May, athletic director Dione Hester and information management technician Jessica Norton to non-school sites pending the outcome of an investigation. Also, temporary athletic coach Alex Burgess was told his services are paused while the investigation proceeds.
Jordan Campbell, the captain of the girls’ volleyball team, told NBC6 on Wednesday that she’s worried about her teammate and that she hasn’t returned to school.
“Right now she’s not being treated like a human, she’s not being treated like she’s worth anything to anyone,” Campbell said. “The things people are saying in school and on social media is beyond disgusting. It is truly disgusting. She’s a human and deserves to be treated like one, how about we bring fairness into that? ‘Cause she’s not being treated like that right now.”
In 2021, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a state law that bars transgender girls and women from playing on public school teams intended for student athletes identified as girls at birth.
Once the law went into effect, the transgender student’s family filed a lawsuit against the state and the school district that asked for injunctive relief to allow her to play on the girls’ team as she had for years.
The lawsuit stated the law “… would prevent (the student) from participating in the sports she loves and decimate her social network… simply because of her transgender status, from the girls’ school teams for which she has been training for years.”
Broward Schools Superintendent Peter Licata said during a news conference that a member of the community had made a complaint about the student athlete last week. He denied that the reassignments had anything to do with the lawsuit.
Florida education officials expect serious consequences for those who allowed the student to play on the girls’ team.
“Under Governor DeSantis, boys will never be allowed to play girls’ sports. It’s that simple,” a Department of Education spokesperson said in a statement to NBC6. “As soon as the Department was notified that a biological male was playing on a girls’ team in Broward County, we instructed the district to take immediate action since this is a direct violation of Florida law. It is completely unacceptable for the male student to have been allowed to play on a girls’ team, and we expect there will be serious consequences for those responsible.”
