Florida students stage a walkout after transgender sports controversy
Florida students staged a walkout after five school officials were reassigned over a transgender student’s participation on the girl’s volleyball team.
Hundreds of students at a Florida high school staged a walkout on Tuesday after their principal and several other school officials were reportedly reassigned over a transgender student’s participation on the girls volleyball team.
Students at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, Fla., walked out of class around noon Tuesday to protest the reassignment of Principal James Cecil and other staffers.NBC MiamiStudents at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, about 15 miles north of Fort Lauderdale, filed out of classrooms and onto the school’s football field at around noon, according to aerial footage from NBC Miami. Some held signs in favor of trans rights, while others chanted “trans lives matter.”The protest came a day after the high school’s principal, James Cecil, and four other staffers were reassigned to non-school sites. It also came amid an ongoing investigation by Broward County officials as to whether the school let a transgender student compete on its girls’ volleyball team, NBC Miami reported, which would violate state law.
Cecil could not be reached for comment.
A spokesperson for Broward County Public Schools confirmed that Cecil and the other staffers were reassigned “pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of improper student participation in sports,” but did not specify if it was because the student is transgender.
Students at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek walked out of class around noon Tuesday to protest the reassignment of Principal James Cecil and other staffers.NBC MiamiThe district’s superintendent, Peter Licata, fielded a flurry of questions from reporters at a news conference on Tuesday regarding a transgender student’s participation in the high school’s girls volleyball team. Licata told reporters there would be “new processes” for athlete eligibility going forward.
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