State athletic officials in Florida announced Tuesday that a high school has been fined and placed on one-year administrative probation for letting a transgender girl play on the school’s female volleyball team.
The Florida High School Athletic Association sent a letter to Monarch High School in Coconut Creek accusing the school of breaching the state’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which prohibits “biological males” joining female sports teams at public schools, as well as violating an association bylaw mandating the same restriction. The letter said the school would have to pay a fine of $16,500—$500 for each of the 33 games in which the trans student played over the last two seasons.
The trans athlete was also “declared ineligible to represent any member school” through November 2024, the letter said.
Florida’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act was signed into law in 2021 by Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of several pieces of legislation the Republican presidential candidate has backed affecting transgender adults and minors by placing restrictions on gender affirming care, the use of preferred pronouns in classrooms, and access to public bathrooms and changing rooms.
“Thanks to [Gov. Ron DeSantis], Florida passed legislation to protect girls’ sports and we will not tolerate any school that violates this law,” Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. wrote in a post on X about Monarch High School’s sanctioning. “We applaud the swift action taken by the [FHSAA] to ensure there are serious consequences for this illegal behavior.”
The letter informing the school of its punishment comes after the Broward County School District launched an investigation into five of the school’s employees over allegations of allowing the trans student to play on the girls’ team. The staff members—including principal James Cecil—were reassigned to non-school sites, prompting walkouts from students protesting the move, according to the Miami Herald.
A statement from a lawyer representing the trans student-athlete’s family provided to CNN said the decision to punish the school “does not change the fact that the law preventing transgender girls from playing sports with their peers is unconstitutionally rooted in anti-transgender bias, and the Association’s claim to ensure equal opportunities for student athletes rings hollow.”