Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, Broward County, has been ordered to pay a $16,500 fine for allowing a transgender student-athlete to play on the girl’s volleyball team, which is against state law.
The state said the school allowed the student to play over 30 games with the team, despite the state law which bans biological males from participating in any female sports team.
A letter by state officials states that Monarch High School is formally reprimanded and placed on administrative probation for a minimum of one year. The school staff must undergo more training in seminars and compliance workshops.
The school had previously been under investigation by the state and its principal and several staff members had been reassigned pending the outcome of this investigation.
As a result of the investigation, the school will face censure, it will be on administrative probation for a year, the principal and current athletic director will need to attend a Florida High School Athletic Association seminar next summer and summer of 2025, and the school will host a compliance workshop within the next few months.
The state letter goes on to say that the student-athlete involved in this case, who had already participated in 13 games, will not be eligible to play in any team sports of any school for the next year.
School officials reassigned
As previously announced, several staff members of the school have been reassigned by Broward school district including Principal James Cecil; Kenneth May, an assistant principal; Dione Hester, the school’s athletic director, and Jessica Norton, an information management technician and mother of the student-athlete in question.
In November, scores of students protested in response to the reassignment of their principal. Their protest was marked by chants and signs that read “trans lives matter” and “bring back Cecil.”
