By Mike Donoghue, Senior Correspondent
Mid Vermont Christian School has asked a federal judge in Burlington for permission to file an amended discrimination lawsuit against state and local education leaders while also challenging Vermont’s new controversial education law known as Act 73.
The new law excludes the private Christian school in Quechee and all religious approved independent schools in Vermont from town tuition funding and other public benefits.
The request to amend the two-year-old lawsuit comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City gave MVCS a big win in September when a three-judge panel granted a preliminary injunction against the Vermont Principals’ Association and its executive director, Jay Nichols.
The stinging decision noted the religious discrimination imposed by the VPA and Nichols, court records noted. The judges ordered them to reinstate MVCS as a full member pending the outcome of the lawsuit.
The appeals court ruled the statewide association discriminated against Mid Vermont Christian when it opted not to play in the girls state high school basketball tournament. The school filed an objection when its first round opponent, Long Trail School in Dorset, was using a transgender player, the court noted.
Mid Vermont said at the time — and still maintains — it had a serious concern that the transgender student, who was more than 6-feet tall, created an unsafe and unfair situation for its girls, court records said.
Senior Federal Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford, who has been presiding over the civil case since it was filed in November 2023, set a status conference hearing for Wednesday afternoon as the Vermont Standard went to press. The lawyers were expected to give him an update, and Crawford could rule on the motion to amend.
Mid Vermont maintains the named defendants would not be at any disadvantage because they never filed a written response to the initial lawsuit in U.S. District Court during the past two years.
MVCS recently asked all the defendants if they were willing to allow for the amended complaint and provided a proposed draft. Nichols and the VPA, along with Education Secretary Zoie Saunders and State Board Chair Jennifer Deck Samuelson, rejected the request, court papers note.
All the local schools officials named as defendants in the lawsuit said they have no objection to the rewritten complaint, Mid Vermont’s filing noted.
