Vermont Christian school no longer sidelined

For three decades, Mid Vermont Christian School played in the state’s sports association. But in 2023, the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) kicked the school out after it forfeited a girls’ high school basketball game because the opposing roster included a male player. The school backs a Biblical and biological definition of gender, and school leaders believed that playing the game forced their staff to affirm something that violated their religious convictions.

The punishment banned sports teams at the pre-K-12 school in Quechee, Vt., from participating in games regulated by the VPA, which oversees middle and high school extracurriculars at every public and private school in the state.

In a win for religious schools, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously decided to lift the ban on Tuesday, ruling that the state acted with “hostility” and imposed an “unprecedented, overbroad, and procedurally irregular” punishment against Mid Vermont. The decision puts Mid Vermont’s athletics program back on the VPA’s roster while litigation continues.

During the VPA ban, Mid Vermont joined the New England Association of Christian Schools. The move interrupted decades-old sports rivalries and required students to travel up to five hours to get to games, said Chris Goodwin, coach of the high school girls’ basketball team.

“It was a long two years of the state taking away all sports competition in our school,” Goodwin said. “It hurt the kids and it hurt the school. So we’re really looking forward to being back.”

Three weeks after the forfeited 2023 game, the VPA determined that Mid Vermont had violated the VPA’s gender identity policy and slapped it with an “immediate determination of ineligibility.” This expulsion barred the Christian school from all VPA activities, including girls’ and boys’ sports and nonathletic activities such as spelling bees, science fairs, drama festivals, and debate competitions.

Jay Nichols, executive director of the VPA, labeled Mid Vermont’s decision to forfeit as “blatant discrimination under the guise of religious freedom.” The sports association told Mid Vermont it wouldn’t allow the school back in unless it agreed to allow its girls’ teams to compete against other girls’ teams with male players.

Goodwin recalled it was difficult for school officials to forfeit and then continue to stand by their beliefs.

“We could either acquiesce to you know, the power of the state … or we could stand up to it. And we felt that was the right thing to do,” Goodwin said. “I don’t want to look back, and the school doesn’t want to look back years from now, and say that we had the opportunity to stand up for what was right, and we decided to pass on that.”

Mid Vermont sued the VPA in a district court in November 2023, contending its actions infringed on religious and free speech rights. The school asked the lower court to temporarily grant it the ability to participate in the VPA while this lawsuit is pending. The district court rejected that request in June 2024, stating that the VPA’s rules did not unfairly target Mid Vermont’s beliefs.

The school then appealed to the 2nd Circuit a few months later, and on Tuesday, a three-judge panel ruled in favor of the school.

Circuit Judge Michael Park wrote in the ruling that, when punishing the school, the VPA threw aside its typical disciplinary procedure, including a formal investigation, a preliminary report, written notice of a probable violation, a recommended penalty, and an opportunity to be heard at a hearing involving counsel and evidence.

The sports association kicked out the school “based on its view that Mid Vermont’s religious objection was ‘wrong,’” Park said. “In its rush to impose an ‘immediate’ expulsion, the VPA flouted its own rules.”

Park said that Nichols’ words against Mid Vermont added to the VPA’s record of hostility. “The VPA’s executive director publicly castigated Mid Vermont—and religious schools generally—while the VPA rushed to judgment on whether and how to discipline the school,” he wrote. “In upholding the expulsion, the VPA doubled down on that hostility by challenging the legitimacy of the school’s religious beliefs.”

Park said that there is a strong public interest in protecting Mid Vermont to ensure other religious schools don’t receive the same treatment.

The appeal court’s ruling now sends back Mid Vermont’s case to the lower courts for an ultimate decision in the case. The lower court must decide if Mid Vermont can also be allowed back into the state’s tuition program and dual enrollment programs—another punishment that resulted from the VPA’s actions.

Despite the lingering questions, the ruling has a “huge” influence statewide and nationally, said Ryan Tucker, an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the school. It’s an encouraging win for schools that may face similar circumstances.

“[Mid Vermont] believes that boys are boys and girls are girls, and they were punished for that belief,” Tucker said. “Fortunately, the 2nd Circuit stepped in and said, ‘You can’t do that. You can't show such hostility towards people of faith.’”

But the ruling doesn’t clarify if the VPA’s policy is generally applicable or valid, said Thomas Berg, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Instead, the court based its decision on the animus and intent of government officials.

This ruling builds on the 2018 Supreme Court case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, where justices found that commissioners acted with hostility against bakery owner Jack Phillips. The 2nd Circuit’s opinion further establishes that what government officials say can affect a case’s result, without even looking at whether the government’s actions are justifiable.

Berg added that there is still some murkiness on what would happen if Mid Vermont, or another school, forfeited a game for a similar reason. “But I think once the taint is there, it’s really very hard for the [VPA] ever to come back and somehow say, well, ‘We’re doing the same thing, but not with the same intent,’” Berg said.

Goodwin noted that if Mid Vermont comes across the same situation in another game, the school will “hold fast to our policy. … We would do the same thing as we did the first time.”