Hundreds of students at a south Florida high school walked out of lessons on Tuesday in support of a principal and senior staff who were reassigned for reportedly violating Ron DeSantis’s law on transgender athletes.

The students staged a short protest on school grounds at lunchtime, many wearing pink clothes and carrying placards with messages including “Free Cecil” and “Let her play”, referencing a transgender athlete whose appearances for Monarch’s girls’ volleyball team led to the district’s action.

Broward’s superintendent of schools, Peter Licata, told reporters at a Tuesday press conference that he could not discuss specifics of the investigation, which he said was prompted by a phone “tip-off” from a member of the public.

Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union, told CBS Miami that she doubted the district or school staff were fully familiar with the requirements of the DeSantis measure, which Florida Republicans passed during a controversial late-night legislative session in April 2021.

According to the lawsuit filed by the athlete’s family, the girl enjoyed playing basketball and softball as a younger child, soccer through her middle school years, and opted for volleyball when she started at Monarch.

Her lawyers argued that the DeSantis act, branded by critics as “cruel and horrific”, was discriminatory in part because it did not block transgender student athletes whose gender was female at birth from competing on boys and men’s teams, and therefore breached the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment of the US constitution.

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