Administrators faced suspensions in transgender athlete case. The new superintendent cleared them.

Six administrators faced three-day suspensions related to a transgender girl playing girls sports, but they all got cleared following a superintendent change in Broward schools.

What caused new Superintendent Howard Hepburn to overrule a recommendation by his predecessor, Peter Licata, remains unclear. The reversal came after complaints by employee groups, who argued the discipline was unjust and political. A lawyer for some of the administrators even alleged the the district engaged in a cover-up, a charge that a district spokesperson denies.

Licata launched an investigation in late November after receiving a tip a transgender girl was playing on the girls volleyball team at Monarch High in Coconut Creek. A state law passed in 2021, known as the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” bans any students who are born male from playing sports in public middle and high schools.

Licata immediately reassigned four Monarch employees: Principal James Cecil, Assistant Principal Kenneth May, Athletic Director Dione Hester and Jessica Norton, an information management specialist who is also the student’s mother.

The investigation was later expanded to nearby Lyons Creek Elementary where the same student had played volleyball and soccer. These employees were investigated but were allowed to stay at their jobs. They include Principal Vernicca Wynter, Assistant Principal Traci Aveni and Ralph Rubiano, a former athletic director who now works at Coral Glades High.

The Florida High School Athletic Association, which oversees high school sports, found the district in violation of the state law in December and fined Monarch $16,500 and imposed other sanctions.

After the district’s own investigation concluded in February, a panel of administrators, known as the Professional Standards Committee, voted unanimously to find no just cause to discipline six of the seven employees, the exception being Norton. The committee concluded that there was no clear evidence that the other employees knowingly violated the state law.

But in all six cases, David Azzarito, a human resources chief serving as a designee for Licata, checked a box on a committee document that says “disagree.” He wrote “3 day suspension” in the comments box, with no explanation given for the change.

The six employees received letters from Kevin Nosowicz, interim chief of the district’s Special Investigative Unit, that their recommended suspensions were scheduled to go before the School Board for a final decision, first on May 21 and then a follow-up letter said June 18.

But then on May 17, Nosowicz sent a third letter to the employees saying the cases were closed, and they had been cleared of any wrongdoing.

District spokesman John Sullivan wouldn’t say the reason for the change.

“Dr. Hepburn made his decision solely on the findings, which aligned to [Professional Standards Committee] recommendations,” Sullivan said.

Licata declined to comment, referring questions to Sullivan. The six employees either couldn’t be reached or declined to comment.

The committee did find just cause to discipline Norton determining that she allowed her child to play girls’ sports despite knowing it was against the law. Norton and her family have a lawsuit in federal court challenging the state law. The committee recommended a 10-day suspension, but Licata and Hepburn both agreed she should be terminated. The School Board will have the final say at an upcoming meeting.

The cases for the other employees won’t go to the School Board since no discipline is recommended.

The initial recommendations to suspend the six employees were blasted by the employees themselves or by representatives from the Broward Teachers Union and the Broward Principals and Assistants Association, which defended them. They argued the district had failed to train these employees on the state law, and that most of the employees were unaware the student was transgender.

The student’s gender had been changed from male to female in the district’s system in 2017, four years before the state law went into effect. Norton told investigators she had requested an employee at Winston Park Elementary in Coconut Creek to do that after then-Superintendent Robert Runcie told her during an LGBTQ forum this practice was allowed.

Rubiano, the former Lyons Creek athletic director, told a district committee he was “being used as a political pawn” by those higher up.

“All paperwork said ‘girl.’ No way to prove she was a boy. Can’t just say drop your pants. Spoke like a girl. Acted like a girl. The people above did not do what they should have if the allegations were true,” according to comments on a district form attributed to Rubiano.

Representatives for the employees argued higher-ups in the district knew about the student due to the 2021 lawsuit.

“Why are they coming after the peons? They knew she was formerly a boy, now a girl playing since 2021, but they didn’t trickle the information down to the principal, coaches and athletic directors,” Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Her union represented Hester.

Chris Whitelock, a lawyer for the administrators group, wrote a scathing letter to School Board Chairwoman Lori Alhadeff on April 15, one day before Licata stepped down due to health reasons.

“Someone in the district is making these innocent employees scapegoats to conceal the fact that the student was permitted to play sports and the District knew this for at least two plus years based on a lawsuit that was filed by the same family against the District and the State in 2021,” Whitelock wrote.

“The practice of the District to cover up internal ‘issues’ by falsely blaming employees and making them political scapegoats needs to end now,” Whitelock wrote. “Without actual accountability for this type of behavior, these types of inexcusable and deplorable tactics will continue to exist in the District.”

He surmised the district was looking for someone to blame because it faced pressure from the state. Shortly after Licata launched the investigation, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education warned the district that it expected “serious consequences” for those who allowed the student to play sports in violation of the state law.

Whitelock wrote that the district had a choice in how it could respond to the state.

“One, the District could report the truth to DOE, that is, it permitted the student to play sports, knew about it at least since 2021, that it had no training on the law even to this day, and that these administrators are not responsible,” he wrote. “Or, on the other hand, the District could mispresent the actual facts and cover itself. Here, the District chose the latter.”

It’s unclear who all in the district knew a transgender girl was playing girls’ sports.

On July 19, 2021, a secretary for General Counsel Marylin Batista requested staff members at Lyons Creek provide the student’s cumulative records. She did not state the reason for the request.

Keyla Concepcion, a district spokeswoman, told the Sun Sentinel that Batista wasn’t allowed to disclose the student’s case to others in the district due to a judge’s protective order issued in October 2021, which prevents the release of names and certain details of the case. Concepcion said the protective order remains in effect.

The order says certain details are for “attorneys’ eyes only,” including the name of the child, family members, the child’s date of birth, place of birth, mother’s maiden name, and past or present schools, teachers, coaches, or extracurricular activities other than activities identified in the complaint.

“The District vehemently denies any statement suggesting Broward County Public Schools engaged in a cover-up,” Concepcion said.