In a stinging decision, a federal appeals court has ruled the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) clearly discriminated against the Mid Vermont Christian School in Quechee on religious grounds after it opted to forfeit a girls playoff basketball game against a high school team with a transgender athlete.
The VPA, in an unprecedented move, banished the Windsor County school in 2023 from its membership after 28 years as a loyal dues-paying and active member. MVCS maintained in court papers it was forced to take a forfeit when the VPA refused to consider the school’s protest over safety concerns of an athlete who is a biologically born boy playing on the girls team.
“We conclude that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed in showing that the VPA’s expulsion of Mid Vermont was not neutral because it displayed hostility toward the school’s religious beliefs,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City said in a unanimous decision Tuesday.
The three-judge panel said it found open hostility by the VPA toward Mid Vermont Christian. The judges also noted the VPA failed to follow its own rules and policies in its rush to dismiss the Christian school from the statewide association.
The ruling overturned a decision by Senior Federal Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford in Burlington that allowed the banishment to remain in place while the two sides battle in court. The case will continue, but the court ruled the school can participate. “In sum, Plaintiffs are likely to succeed in establishing that Defendants acted with hostility toward Mid Vermont’s religious beliefs. The VPA executive director publicly castigated Mid Vermont — and religious schools generally — while the VPA rushed to judgement on whether and how to discipline the school,” the judges said.
“In upholding the expulsion, the VPA doubled down on that hostility by challenging the legitimacy of the school’s religious beliefs. And as noted above, the punishment imposed was unprecedented, overbroad and procedurally irregular,” the judges wrote in the 19-page decision.
Jay Nichols, executive director of the VPA, told the Standard Tuesday he was unaware of any association official or employee that discriminated against any religious schools. He said he was precluded from adding any more comments because the litigation remains pending.
The judges ordered the case sent back to Vermont with instructions to grant Plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction to allow for Mid Vermont’s reinstatement as a VPA member.
Mid Vermont Christian School, founded in 1987, is a private faith-based pre-K-12 school in Windsor County, whose religious beliefs drive and form the foundation for everything it does. It maintains having its girls team competing against a male-born athlete would have violated the school’s religious convictions. It joined the VPA about 1993-94 when it fielded its first basketball team.
For more on this story, please see our September 11 edition of the Vermont Standard.
