High School AD Returns to Duties After Being Cleared in Transgender Violation Probe

The principal, assistant principal and athletic director at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, Fla., returned to their normal job posts this week after being reassigned amid a controversy involving a transgender student-athlete playing on a girls' sports team.

As reported by NBC affiliate WTVJ, athletic director Dione Hester and the two other officials resumed their responsibilities Wednesday, Broward County Public Schools spokesperson Keyla Concepcion said in a statement, after the district's Special Investigate Unit cleared them of "the allegations," but said "the investigation concerning other aspects remains ongoing."

The staffers had been reassigned to non-school sites after an investigation into allegations of improper student participation in sports was launched in November.

The school was later reprimanded and fined after state officials said a transgender student-athlete was allowed to play on a girls' volleyball team for two seasons in violation of Florida law, WTVJ reported.

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," according to WTVJ.

Per the WTVJ report:

The school was fined $16,500 and was placed on administrative probation for a full calendar year.

The fine represents $500 for each of the 33 volleyball contests the transgender athlete participated in for Monarch in the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons.

The school appealed the fine earlier this year.

Some Monarch High students protested the staffer reassignments and held walkouts and demonstrations in support of the student-athlete.