The parents of the transgender girl at the heart of a controversy at Monarch High School spoke out Tuesday for the first time since the issue erupted last November.
Jessica Norton works at Monarch High School. She knows the superintendent has already recommended her termination, but she went to the Broward County School Board meeting Tuesday to tell board members what her family has been through, and to let them know she cooperated fully with the district’s investigation.
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“I had to sit through an interview where SIU detectives insisted on referring to my daughter as my son,” Norton said.
With her husband at her side, Norton held nothing back. She said she wasn’t there to beg for her job back, she was there on behalf of her daughter.
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“District leadership tried to ruin my life but instead destroyed the life of an innocent 16-year-old girl, they destroyed her high school career and life-long memories and experiences. My daughter was flourishing at Monarch, she was not just a volleyball player, she was a very involved student,” Norton said, holding back tears.
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Her daughter’s peers at Monarch High walked out of class last fall in support of their classmate and to protest the suspension of principal James Cecil. Under a 2021 Florida state law, trans girls cannot play girls' sports. Norton’s daughter was on the girls’ volleyball team, mostly a benchwarmer, but when someone outside the team outed her, the school district suspended Norton, Cecil, and the athletic director for violating the law.
Norton’s daughter withdrew from school and enrolled in virtual school for her own safety.
“She was very involved in school, so she went from having that support day in and day out and the socialization of school to being stuck at home at a dining room table doing school work,” Norton said.
“I want my kid to get back to normalcy,” said Gary Norton, the girl’s father. “And my whole theory was, you don’t want to be your kid’s first bully, so I didn’t put pressure on her, I backed her in everything she did.”
Their daughter legally changed her name and gender. She was the sophomore class president and was voted homecoming princess. The Nortons say the whole volleyball team knew she’s trans and no one cared, so they never expected an issue to develop.
“Um, obviously, I don’t agree with it,” Jessica Norton said when asked what she thinks of the state law prohibiting kids like her daughter from playing high school sports.
“This is not an issue that sprang forth from actual community concern,” said Jason Starr, the family’s attorney. “This is a minority of loud individuals who are creating a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist that creates more problems.”
Starr pointed out that the family is still challenging the 2021 state law. The school district had no comment on Norton’s comments Tuesday.
