Mother of transgender Broward student speaks out, saying investigation has destroyed her daughter’s life

FORT LAUDERDALE – Jessica Norton waited months to tell her family’s story, and when she finally spoke to the Broward School Board on Tuesday, she was blunt.

“The district tried to ruin my life, instead you ruined the life of a 16-year-old.”

Her daughter, once a member of the volleyball team at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, had her life turned upside down last fall when the school district accused her of violating a state law that prohibits transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports.

Norton told the panel that her daughter had been elected first and second grade class president, was named student body charity director, and was a homecoming princess. That all ended when the investigation began and the girl left Monarch.

“You have destroyed her high school career and her lifelong memories,” Norton said. “I saw the light in my daughter’s eyes as she had plans for the future to organize and attend prom, participate in and lead senior class traditions, give a speech at graduation and enter college with the confidence and joy that any student like her would have after a successful and empowering high school experience. And 203 days ago, I watched that life snuffed out.”

“She went from socializing to working at our dinner table,” Norton said.

Norton says her daughter is attending virtual school after leaving Monarch last year.

The board did not respond to requests for comment or explain why it did not address the issue of whether Jessica Norton should be fired from her engineering job at Monarch High.

The family is suing the state over the law, which was passed in 2021 and signed by Governor Ron Desantis.

“You created a solution to a problem that didn’t exist,” said her lawyer, Jason Starr.

Norton said her daughter was doing very well at Monarch before an anonymous whistleblower informed a Broward County school board member in November that the teenager was playing on the girls’ volleyball team, in apparent violation of state law.

The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act of 2021 prohibits students born as boys from participating in girls’ sports.

That November tip sparked a school district investigation that led to Norton potentially losing her job as a computer information specialist at Monarch for allowing her daughter to play. Investigators also said that as part of her job, she did not change the child’s gender from “female” to “male” on school records, as district policy requires.

None of the nine board members responded to Norton, who had served the district for seven years and received excellent reviews before November.

The treatment of transgender children has been a sensitive issue across the country in recent years. Florida is one of at least 25 states that have passed bans on gender-affirming care for minors and one of at least 24 states that have passed a law barring transgender women and girls from certain women’s and girls’ sports.

The board was scheduled to vote Tuesday on Superintendent Howard Hepburn’s recommendation to fire Norton, but that decision has been delayed by at least a month.

A district committee recommended Norton be suspended for 10 days, but Hepburn overruled it. He did not say why. The committee could fire Norton, suspend him or take no action.

Monarch Principal James Cecil and three other administrators were temporarily reassigned at the start of the investigation, but were reinstated after student protests. The state athletic commission fined the school $16,500.

Broward is one of Florida’s most politically liberal counties, with twice as many Democrats as Republicans and a large LGBTQ+ community.

The statewide school district is the fifth largest in the country, with nearly 255,000 students in 327 schools.