Hundreds of students walked out of class to support a principal and staff who were reassigned for allowing a transgender athlete to play on a girls’ volleyball team.
Monarch High School principal James Cecil, his assistant Kenneth May, athletic director Dione Hester, volleyball coach Jessica Norton and an information management technician were removed from their roles at the Coconut Creek campus on Monday.
Students marched out onto the school’s football field around noon on Tuesday, chanting ‘trans lives matter’ and some holding signs backing transgender rights.
Broward County Public Schools noted that the staff had drawn ‘allegations of improper student participation in sports’.
They allegedly violated Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ law that went into effect in 2021 prohibiting transgender females from playing on girls and women’s public school teams if their assigned gender at birth was male.
County officials are investigating whether the staff members’ actions violated state law.
‘Although we cannot comment further, we will continue to follow state law and will take appropriate action based on the outcome of the investigation,’ said Broward County School District spokesman John Sullivan.
‘We are committed to providing all our students with a safe and inclusive learning environment.’
District superintendent Peter Licata said ‘new processes’ would be implemented for athlete eligibility at the campus.
‘We’ll have an extra level of investigation on making sure everyone is eligible for the sport they’re playing, in all aspects, grade level, grades, so forth and so on,’ he said.
The high school, located about 18 miles north of Fort Lauderdale, has a 1,571 students, according to its website.
Since 2020, at least 23 states have enacted legislation barring trans athletes from participating on sports teams that correspond with their identity.
A lawsuit challenging DeSantis’ law was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this month.
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