Dozens of students at a Broward County high school held a walkout Tuesday after their principal was reassigned amid an investigation into whether a transgender student athlete was allowed to compete on a girl's team.
Students at at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek walked out of class around noon Tuesday to protest the reassignment of Principal James Cecil and staffers.
The students held signs and chanted "trans lives matter" and "bring back Cecil" during the 30-minute demonstration on the school's athletic field.
Officials with Broward County Public Schools said in a statement Monday that the principal and staffers had been reassigned to non-school sites pending an investigation into allegations of improper student participation in sports.
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At a news conference Tuesday, Broward Public School Superintendent Dr. Peter Licata said he'd received a complaint just days before Thanksgiving that a transgender girl, who'd been born a boy, was competing on a girl's volleyball team.
"That is not an indication of discipline, it is an indication that we want to make sure that when we investigate it is done properly and appropriately," Licata said. "Again, we want to make sure we do this right, nobody is guilty of anything at this point.
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Licata said the investigation remains open.
"The volleyball season is over and we have some new processes that we're going to move forward with," he said. "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."
A Florida statute says athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls are not open to male students, and says 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 if the statement was filed at or near the time of the student’s birth."
On the state’s high school athletic association’s pre-participation physical evaluation form, the question of a student's “sex assigned at birth” appears at the very top, then two additional times on the form.
Around half the states in the country have similar laws for girls' sports.
Also reassigned were assistant principal Kenneth May, athletic director Dione Hester and information management technician Jessica Norton, pending the outcome of the investigation. Temporary athletic coach Alex Burgess was told his services are paused while the investigation proceeds.
When questioned by reporters, Licata denied that the reassignments had anything to do with a lawsuit the student and her parents had previously brought against the school. A federal judge ruled against the student earlier this month.
"We want to make sure we're protecting students, all students," Licata said.
