Florida high school appeals $16,500 fine related to transgender athlete

Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, Florida, won’t dispute a finding that it violated state law when a transgender girl played on the girls’ volleyball team, but the school is asking a state athletic association for leniency.

The school is asking that a $16,500 fine from the Florida High School Athletic Association be reduced. A school district spokesman said Monarch High must cover any fines with its own internal budget.

The state athletic association, which is controlled by appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis, sanctioned Monarch last month, saying it violated the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” a 2021 state law that DeSantis championed. The law bans any student who was born male from playing on a school’s girls’ sports team.

Broward Schools Superintendent Peter Licata launched an internal investigation in November after learning about the athlete. He suspended or temporarily reassigned five school officials, including Principal James Cecil, and the student’s mother, Jessica Norton, a technology specialist at Monarch.

That investigation is scheduled to be completed by mid-February, a district spokesman said previously.

The sports association imposed several other sanctions, including banning the transgender student from playing high school sports for a year, placing the school on probation for a year and requiring school officials undergo a series of compliance training sessions.

Monarch was given 10 business days to appeal the findings or seek a reduced penalty if it believed the penalties were too severe, according to a Dec. 12 letter the association sent to acting principal Moira Sweeting-Miller.

“The school is not appealing the finding, but on Monday, December 18, the school’s (acting) principal emailed the organization to appeal the penalty by asking for consideration of a reduced fine,” district spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “The school is awaiting a response.”

Sweeting-Miller’s email did not state the reason for the request nor did it say how much she wanted the fine to be reduced.

“I am emailing you to find out what are the next steps for the compliance workshop and would also like to find out if there is a possibility of reducing the fine,” Sweeting-Miller wrote Dec. 18 to Craig Damon, executive director of the organization.

It’s unclear if the association will grant the request. Sweeting-Miller received an out-of-office message saying that Damon would return on Jan. 3. Neither he nor a spokesperson could be reached Wednesday.

The district does not appear to be challenging the decision to ban the student from playing on any of the association’s participating sports teams — which are nearly all high school sports teams in Florida — through Nov. 20, 2024. However, the student’s family is challenging that in federal court.

The Norton family filed a lawsuit against the state in June 2021 challenging the legality of the state law. At that time, the student was playing on a middle school girls’ soccer team.

A federal judge sided with the state in an early November ruling but allowed the now 16-year-old student and her family to file an amended complaint.

The judge, as well as officials from DeSantis’ administration and the athletic association, have argued that children born male have an unfair competitive advantage if they play on girls sports teams. Transgender advocates have argued the advantages are mitigated by certain hormones, and that the motivation for such laws is bias against transgender people.

A lawyer for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ rights group representing the Nortons, confirmed in December the family will file an amended complaint. It had not been filed as of Wednesday afternoon. The deadline is Jan. 11.

The group blasted the athletic association’s sanctions against the district in a statement last month.

The action “does not change the fact that the law preventing transgender girls from playing sports with their peers is unconstitutionally rooted in anti-transgender bias, and the Association’s claim to ensure equal opportunities for student athletes rings hollow,” Jason Starr, litigation strategist for the Human Rights Campaign Litigation Strategist, said Dec. 12.

“The reckless indifference to the wellbeing of our client and her family, and all transgender students across the State, will not be ignored,” Starr said.

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