A public school employee in Florida who allowed her “transgender daughter” to play on the girls’ volleyball team at their high school will be suspended without pay for 10 days. She will not be fired.
To recap, the mother, Jessica Norton, allowed her son who thinks he is a girl to play on the girls’ volleyball team in clear violation of state law. An anonymous tipster notified a school board member last year that the 16-year-old was playing on the girls’ varsity volleyball team. The tip led to an investigation that led to Norton being suspended from her position as an information management specialist at the high school. In addition, she was a volunteer coach.
Last month, Norton faced possibly being fired, which Townhall covered.
According to NBC News, the School Board of Broward County voted 5-4 to suspend Norton (via NBC News):
Norton, who has worked for Broward County Public Schools for seven years, was suspended from her job without pay for 10 days. Norton avoided termination, which was recommended by the district’s superintendent, Howard Hepburn.
“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,” Norton said after Tuesday’s board meeting, according to NBC South Florida.
"District leadership tried to ruin my life, but instead you destroyed a 16-year-old's life,” Norton said last month when her job was up in the air. “They destroyed her high school career and her lifelong memories.”
“I saw the light in my daughter's eyes gleam with future plans of organizing and attending prom, participating in and leading senior class traditions, speaking at graduation and going off to college with the confidence and joy that any student like her would after a successful and encouraging high school experience. And 203 days ago, I watched as that life was extinguished,” she added.
Last year, Townhall reported how Monarch High School was fined over $10,000 for allowing the biological male to play on the girls’ volleyball team. The fine was carried out by the Florida High School Athletic Association over the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” which requires athletes to play sports on teams that correspond to their biological sex rather than their “gender identity.”
Before this, the principal and two other staff members at the Florida school were reassigned to “non-school sites” amid the investigation into the “trans” student who was playing on the girls’ sports team.