By Mike Donoghue, Standard Correspondent
A federal judge is being asked to block a reinstatement request by the founder and longtime coach of the snowboard teams at Woodstock Union High School (WUHS) who says he was unfairly dismissed for joining a private discussion by two students about a transgender student competing on behalf of a neighboring school.
School Superintendent Sherry Sousa, who fired David J. Bloch last February, and the Windsor Central Supervisory Union Board are asking the judge to reject both a preliminary injunction request by Bloch and his wish for an expedited hearing.
Sousa and the school district, which is now known as the Mountain Views Supervisory Union, also filed separate court papers seeking to dismiss three of the five causes of action Bloch outlined in his 32-page lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington in July.
Federal Judge Christina Reiss was scheduled to hold a hearing in October on the request for a preliminary injunction, but she has now moved it up a month to Sept. 25. Deputy Court Clerk Jennifer Ruddy said in the notice that the court is allotting a full day for the hearing, starting at 10 a.m. Reiss also said Tuesday that she wants to have a telephone scheduling conference on Thursday afternoon with the nine lawyers listed in the case.
Sousa and the district have yet to respond to the actual claims or representations outlined in more than 230 numbered paragraphs. In the motion to reject the three claims, Sousa and the district said that they “disagree with Plaintiffs’” accounting of the events leading up to his termination. They did not elaborate.
Bloch is claiming five causes of action, including the lack of due process, according to his lawsuit. Four of the causes center on the First Amendment, including unlawful retaliation and prior restraint by limiting speech. He seeks reinstatement and a lifting of a ban that he can never coach again in the district. He also wants all records about the termination purged.
Two other defendants, Executive Director Jay Nichols of the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) and Heather Bouchey, Vermont’s interim Secretary of Education, also have filed their own responses, claiming there is no reason either of them should be part of the unlawful discharge lawsuit.
Bloch filed his federal civil rights lawsuit two and a half months ago against Sousa, Windsor Central, Bouchey, and Nichols claiming he was unfairly fired from his seasonal post coaching boys and girls snowboarding.
Bloch said a harassment policy cited by Sousa during the firing is invalid under the First Amendment and the dismissal was seen as retaliation for exercising his free speech rights, court papers noted.
Nichols and Bouchey maintain they had no involvement in investigating Bloch, no involvement in the termination decision or ratifying the action, according to papers filed recently in the lawsuit. They both believe Bloch is not likely to succeed in his lawsuit.
Bloch claims he was handed a termination notice by Sousa one day after the reported conversation, but the superintendent admitted the investigation had not been completed. Sousa reportedly said she did not have all the details of the Feb. 8 conversation, but Bloch would get the final report the day after the meeting, his lawsuit said. Bloch said he asked repeatedly for the report, but five months later he was still waiting. Bloch claims his due process rights were trampled on. The lawsuit maintains Sousa never informed him of the allegations against him; that an investigation was underway; never discussed the policies that reportedly were violated, and didn’t discuss any confidentiality rights.
Bouchey believes the injunction sought by Bloch is targeted at the statewide harassment policy and that it “would allow him to opine freely on the gender identity of student-athletes, regardless of the objective effects of his speech on the students or the school,” according to the filing by her lawyer, Eleanor L.P. Spottswood, solicitor general for the state. Spottswood said the state believes Bloch has failed to show in his filings that he will be able to prove prior restraint, vagueness, overbreadth and content-based discrimination.
Bloch in his lawsuit also explains that, before he was terminated by Sousa, he was never given proper notice, never explained his rights to appeal her decision, and never given a chance to present witnesses or evidence during the purported investigation.
Sousa and the district have been tight-lipped about the lawsuit and the claims. “The district is committed to providing a supportive and inclusive environment for all of our community including members who are LGBTQIA+,” she said in an email to the Vermont Standard when the lawsuit was filed.
Bloch said he was in a ski lodge on Feb. 8, waiting for a snowboard competition to begin, when a boy and a girl from his team, sitting at the same table with him, began discussing transgender athletes competing in sports, the lawsuit said. The conversation was not disruptive nor did it appear it would become disruptive, the court papers noted. The boy expressed his opinion that males competing against females was unfair based on differences in biology, and the girl responded by accusing the boy of being transphobic, the lawsuit said.
Bloch said that is when he joined the conversation. He said people express themselves in different ways and there can be masculine women and feminine men, the lawsuit said. He said as a matter of biology males and females have different DNA. In an effort to illustrate the differences, Bloch gave the example of an archaeologist who, digging up bones, would categorize them as belonging to a male or female because of inherent differences, the lawsuit said.
Coach Bloch discussed that different physical characteristics generally give males competitive advantages in athletic competition, the lawsuit said. Bloch said the conversation was respectful and lasted less than 3 minutes, during which time the transgender student was never mentioned by name.
While the lawsuit does not name the school or location of the meet, the Woodstock team schedule showed them at Jay Peak and the Vermont Standard determined the transgender student was at Hartford High School. The two teams shared a bus to the snowboard competition.
Bloch acknowledges in the lawsuit that he is “a practicing Roman Catholic who believes that God creates males and females with immutable sex. His understanding of science complements his religious beliefs. Coach Bloch believes, based on scientific evidence, that there are only two sexes, which are male and female and that sex is determined by a person’s chromosomes.”
The next day, Woodstock Athletic Director Jack Boymer told Bloch a complaint had been received about the Feb. 8 conversation, the lawsuit said. Bloch confirmed there had been a conversation by the students. Bloch said that, at about 3 p.m., he met with Sousa and was handed a notice of “immediate termination” for purportedly violating policies concerning hazing, harassment and bullying created by the school board and the VPA.