Divided School Board suspends mom of transgender athlete for 10 days

A Monarch High employee accused of allowing her transgender daughter to play girls sports in violation of state law will be suspended for 10 days and moved to a different job, a divided Broward School Board decided Tuesday.

Jessica Norton, 50, an information management specialist and coach at the Coconut Creek school, was one of at least eight district employees investigated, but the only one to face discipline. An investigation concluded that her child, now 16, played volleyball for two years at Monarch, as well as soccer and volleyball at nearby Lyons Creek Middle.

A committee of district administrators recommended a 10-day suspension, but Hepburn decided to ask the School Board to fire her instead, saying she knowingly violated a 2021 law known as the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” which bans anyone born male from competing in girls sports.

“Obviously I don’t want to get fired from my job. I love my job,” Norton told reporters afterward. “But I don’t think that the decision for any suspension was correct,” arguing she did nothing wrong.

What Norton’s job will look like when she returns is unclear. As part of the 10-day suspension, the majority of board members agreed to allow her to work a lateral job as a clerk but without access to any student records.

Four board members — Lori Alhadeff, Torey Alston, Brenda Fam and Daniel Foganholi — appeared ready to fire her, rejecting requests from the board’s most liberal board members — Sarah Leonardi, Jeff Holness, Allen Zeman and Nora Rupert — for more lenient discipline.

The swing vote was Debbi Hixon, who agreed with some of her more conservative colleagues that Norton needed strict consequences, saying she broke the law and her actions had an adverse impact on her school, which got fined $16,500 and placed on probation. But Hixon also agreed with her more liberal colleagues that termination was too harsh for an employee’s first offense.

“This is really about not following the law,” Hixon said. “It is about knowing there was a transgender student playing girls students while you were a coach and employee at the school.”

The final vote was 5-4, with Alhadeff, Alston, Foganholi and Fam dissenting.

“It is extremely important when an employee breaks the law, that there’s consequences to those actions, and our superintendent brought forward to us this termination as a consequence,” Alhadeff said. “If we do not terminate, then others would be led to believe that they too can break the law, and I have a problem with that.”

But some board members argued the district’s investigation was flawed and that the district has given lesser punishments for worse offenses. The vote was postponed a week after Alston asked Hepburn to bring back a list of discipline for other employee cases.

Zeman read from the list, which included a guidance counselor accused of fraud getting a three-day suspension, a teacher assistant accused of child abuse getting a one-day suspension and a safety specialist getting 10 days over accusations of indecent conduct with staff.

“It’s important for us to come up with a solution to this that is consistent with the others,” Zeman said. “When people who are accused of or found guilty of indecent conduct with minors get letters of reprimand, we have to be very, very careful about where we’re going.”

But Alston said those past actions don’t justify lenient discipline of Norton.

“I actually believe most of those disciplines that are read are atrocious,” he said.

Fam, an outspoken social conservative on the board, used the harshest words during the discussion to describe Norton and her daughter, who she referred to as her son.

“I think what happened is criminal in my opinion,” she said, despite state law defining violations to the law as a civil matter.

Norton walked out of the auditorium at Plantation High, where the meeting was held, in the middle of Fam’s comments.

“She deliberately did it I felt to get a reaction out of me. It worked,” Norton said after the meeting. “I don’t think that a school board member should be misgendering children at all.”

Jason Starr, a lawyer representing Norton, blasted the decision, saying it holds her responsible for actions she took as a parent, not an employee. Hepburn confirmed to the board that there was no evidence that Norton used her job to falsify any student records.

“There is no question that throughout the course of this investigation, the Broward County School District has not only abdicated its responsibility to the safety and well-being of Mrs. Norton’s daughter, but has retaliated against an employee simply for advocating for their child,” Starr said.

He also noted that a few years ago, the district had policies that were supportive of transgender students. Many of those policies were dropped due to new state laws that have passed since 2021.

“The LGBTQ+ inclusive policies that had become a foundational part of the culture of Broward County Schools have been completely abandoned — LGBTQ+ students and families are not safe in this school district and their treatment of the Norton’s have made that clear,” Starr said.