COCONUT CREEK, FLA. (WSVN) - For a second day in a row, some students at a Broward County school walked out of their classrooms in support of their principal and other staff members who have been reassigned while officials investigate allegations revolving around a transgender student.
7News cameras captured students at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek after they assembled on a sports field, Wednesday afternoon.
“I think it’s pretty, like, messed up that, like, our principal is just trying to do the right thing,” said student Sofia Rodriguez.
Students voiced their support for their principal, James Cecil, as well as assistant principal Kenneth May, athletic director Dione Hester, information management technician Jessica Norton and temporary athletic coach Alex Burgess. Cecil, May and Hester have been reassigned after the district learned that a transgender student born male was allowed to play on the girls’ volleyball team.
As for Burgess, he was informed his services are paused while the investigation moves forward.
The captain of the girls’ volleyball team, who identified herself as Jordan, spoke with 7News on Wednesday.
“I played with her, and I think that, like, everyone who thinks that they have this opinion on her but don’t even know her, have no idea who she is,” she said. “She was the sweetest person, like, anyone has ever met.”
Jordan said her concern is for this student athlete being affected.
“I think this has completely ruined her life, like, yeah, she’s not coming back,” she said.
A Florida law passed in 2021 prohibits transgender students from playing girls’ teams.
Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Peter Licata said he received a phone call and immediately informed the state.
“I received a call from a constituent that there could be some factors that were not appropriate for girls volleyball,” he said.
When this transgender student was in middle school, she and her family challenged the law. The lawsuit described her as exhibiting behavior as a girl as early as 3 years old and that she clearly saw herself as a girl in the years after that.
While the state requires student athletes to identify their sex assigned at birth, the lawsuit states she received an amended birth certificate that identified her as a girl.
Still, U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman ruled, “We acknowledge the statute creates a difficult (and perhaps unfair) situation for (the student), who identifies as a girl in all respects and who may be prohibited from playing on the teams of her choice.”
Altman further said the state law gives the transgender student “the option to play on either boys’ or coed or mixed teams.”
Students at Monarch High said the whole school is shaken up over this.
“This girl’s life is being affected, it’s opening a lot to bullying her,” said student Taylor-Jane Horan. “I just don’t think that this is really fair to a lot of people, to herself, her family, and this is affecting a lot at our school, like, our principal’s gone, like a lot of our admins gone. It’s really affecting us.”
Jordan and other students said the transgender student in question is very small in stature, so the idea that she put the team at some sort of unfair advantage is false.
The school district continues to investigate the matter.
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