COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – Students at a Broward County high school staged a second walkout Wednesday as fallout continues on the campus over the district’s decision to reassign its principal and several staff members amid an investigation into a transgender athlete being allowed to play on the girls’ volleyball team.
Students at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek walked out in support of the student-athlete and staffers, as they did Tuesday. The news of the staff reassignments broke on Monday.
In 2021, the Florida State Legislature passed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which specifies athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls may not be open to students of the male sex. Gov. Ron DeSantis later signed the bill into law.
Parents of transgender children are reacting to the developments at Monarch with dismay. That includes Jeanette Jennings, the mother of Jazz Jennings, whose transition was documented on a television show.
“As a parent all you want is for your child to be happy,” Jennings said. “I cried many times for my kid when she was told you can’t play.”
She added, “I feel for the mom because she is being imposed upon now by a state law and that law has no right to tell kids that they can’t be kids.”
In a federal lawsuit filed against the state in June 2021, court documents reveal that the student-athlete “identified as a girl and even in pre-school she presented as female” and was “diagnosed with gender dysphoria at age seven.”
“At age 11, at the recommendation of her endocrinologist, she began hormone blockers to stop testosterone,” the lawsuit states.
It says she’s “receiving estrogen and as she continues through puberty, will develop as a girl.”
The lawsuit also said the girl has a lifelong love of sports.
Jennifer Solomon, who works for Equality Florida, knows the student and her family.
“I would say this is an extraordinary, ordinary family,” Solomon said. “We have a governor that unleashed a mob on this family, but all families of LGBTQ kids are feeling the hurt.”
A federal judge sided with the state in the family’s lawsuit, but gave them the ability to refile it.