Florida high school bosses are CLEARED after letting transgender girl play on an all girls' volleyball team - despite breaking state law

Bosses at a Florida high school have been cleared for allowing a transgender girl play on a female volleyball team despite allegedly breaking state law.

Principal James Cecil, Assistant Principal Kenneth May and Athletic Director Dione Hester were investigated by the school district over the controversy.

The staff were reassigned after it emerged last year that a transgender girl had been let onto the girls' team at Monarch High School for two seasons.

The student's mom, Jessica Norton, an information management specialist at the school was also reassigned to a non-school site pending the investigation.  Temporary volleyball coach Alex Burgess had his services suspended amid the probe.

'The investigation by the BCPS Special Investigate Unit cleared Principal James Cecil, Assistant Principal Kenneth May and Athletic Director Dione Hester of the allegations,' spokesperson Keyla Concepción said.

Bosses at a Florida high school have been cleared for allowing a transgender female student to play on a girls' volleyball team despite allegedly breaking state law 

 'The three employees will resume their responsibilities effective Wednesday, May 22, 2024. The investigation remains ongoing on the fourth Monarch employee included in the probe.

'Monarch High School complied with the sanctions imposed by the Florida High School Athletic Association, including paying the assessed fine and attending the organization’s compliance seminar in early May.'

Florida's 'Fairness in Women's Sport' Act dictates that male student athletes must play on teams which correspond with their biologically assigned sex at birth. 

The student's parents have filed a lawsuit against the legislation, indicating that their daughter was playing on the girls' team.

The complaint states their daughter's sex has been changed on her birth certificate.

The Florida High School Athletic Association fined Monarch High $16,500 and barred the student from competing in further volleyball seasons. 

The fine represents $500 for each of the 33 volleyball contests the student played in across the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons. 

The decision caused a furious backlash at the school, with protests held in solidarity with the athlete concerned. 

Students packed onto the football field waving flags and signs saying 'trans lives matter'.

Principal, James Cecil (pictured), and four other staffers were reassigned following 'allegations of improper student participation in sports' but have since been cleared by the school district probe

Monarch High School assistant principal Kenneth May (left) and teacher and athletic director Dione Hester (right) were also reassigned

Jessica Norton, an information management specialist and volleyball coach at the school,  identified herself as the mother of the child 

Norton identified herself as the student's mom amid the furor.

''There is a long history in this country of outing people against their will — forced outing, particularly of a child, is a direct attempt to endanger the person being outed,' she said.

'We kindly ask everyone to respect our family's privacy, and to give our family the space we need to speak to our experience on our own terms and timeline.' 

'I think this has completely ruined her life,' Volleyball team captain Jordan Campbell said of the unnamed student. 

'I played with her and I think everyone who thinks that they have this opinion on her but don't even know her, have no idea who she is. She was the sweetest person anyone has ever met,' she told NBC6.

Officials later announced they were expanding their personnel investigation after it emerged the student had played on the girls' team in middle school. 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law in 2021 excluding transgender girls and women from girls' and women's sports teams in public schools.

'In Florida, girls are going to play girls' sports and boys are going to play boys' sports,' DeSantis said as he signed the bill into law. 'We're going to make sure that that's the reality.'

The statute says athletic teams or sports designated for females, women or girls are not open to male students.

It adds that 'a statement of a student's biological sex on the student's official birth certificate is considered to have correctly stated the student's biological sex at birth.

The participation of transgender girls and women on girls' and women's public school sports teams is banned under Florida state law

But students protested the decision to remove the girl from her team, staging several protests at Monarch High School

The school was fined $16,500 by The Florida High School Athletic Association, $500 for each of the 33 volleyball contests the student played in over the last two seasons

At the time, The district's superintendent, Peter Licata, maintained that the reassignment was 'not an indication of discipline'. 

He added that there would be 'new processes' for 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.