Mother of a transgender athlete keeps her job in Broward school district: “I fought back”

PLANTATION, Florida. — A Broward school district employee who allowed her transgender daughter to play girls volleyball, sparking a state investigation, will not lose her job.

In a special meeting at Plantation High School, the Broward County School Board voted 5-4 to suspend, not fire, Jessica Norton.

Superintendent Howard Hepburn had recommended that Norton be fired, but instead she was suspended for ten days.

Investigators found that her daughter’s participation on the Monarch High School volleyball team violated a 2021 Florida state law that prohibits transgender girls from participating in women’s sports.

Norton worked as a computer information specialist at Coconut Creek School.

State sports officials fined Monarch; the school’s principal and two other staff members were later acquitted of any wrongdoing.

After the vote, Norton spoke to the media and said that while she disagreed with the suspension, she was glad she did not lose her job.

“I mean, I wasn’t fired. I wasn’t terminated, so I was kind of triumphant,” she said. “I fought back. I didn’t let them boss me around. I didn’t resign. I didn’t quit my job. I stayed to the end and let them decide. Do I think their decision was right? I don’t think so, but you know, I did what I had to do for my family.”

Norton said she plans to talk to her family after the vote to decide whether she wants to return to Monarch for the upcoming school year.