Florida students stage walkout after reassignment of staff who allowed trans athlete to compete

Scores of students at a South Florida high school walked out of class Tuesday after five school staffers, including the principal, were reassigned for allowing a transgender athlete to participate on the girls volleyball team, in violation of state law.

Students at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek began marching from the school’s football field to the parking lot around noon Tuesday, chanting “trans rights are human rights” and holding handmade signs with messaging supporting transgender athletes.

On Monday, the school district, Broward County Public Schools, reassigned principal James Cecil, assistant principal Kenneth May, athletic director Dione Hester, information management technician Jessica Norton and temporary athletic coach Alex Burgess to non-school sites, pending the outcome of an investigation into whether a transgender student was permitted to play on Monarch High’s girls volleyball team.

Norton and Burgess are listed as the school’s volleyball coaches on the team’s MaxPreps page.

Broward County Public Schools did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment, but a district spokesperson told ABC News on Tuesday that the district intends to “continue to follow state law and will take appropriate action based on the outcome of the investigation.”

“We are committed to providing all our students with a safe and inclusive learning environment,” the spokesperson said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is campaigning to be the 2024 GOP nominee for president, signed the state’s transgender athlete ban in 2021. The law, known as the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, bars transgender athletes from competing on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

Students are required to submit their original birth certificates to participate in school sports, according to the law.

At least 23 states since 2020 have enacted laws preventing transgender athletes from participating on school sports teams that match their gender identity. Several have been challenged in court, and temporary injunctions are currently blocking the enforcement of bans in Arizona, Idaho, West Virginia and Utah.

A lawsuit challenging the Florida law, which named DeSantis and the Broward County school board as defendants, was dismissed by a federal judge this month.

During a Tuesday news conference, Broward County Public Schools superintendent Peter Licata said there would be “new processes” to determine student-athlete eligibility going forward.

“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.

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