The Vermont Principals’ Association has agreed to pay $566,000 in damages and attorney fees stemming from a lawsuit over transgender athletes competing in high school sports.
The lawsuit goes back to 2023, when the principals’ association expelled Mid Vermont Christian School, a pre-K through 12th grade private school in Quechee, from competing in any of the state’s high school sports programs.
That decision came after the school’s high school girls varsity basketball team forfeited a playoff game against the Long Trail School in Dorset because the Long Trail School had a transgender athlete on the roster.
A family from Mid Vermont Christian School sued state officials, and in September the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled in favor of the family, saying the state must allow the Christian school back into the state’s athletic association.
This week the Vermont Principals’ Association agreed to pay the $566,000.
“The government cannot punish religious schools — and the families they serve — by permanently kicking them out of state-sponsored sports simply because the state disagrees with their religious beliefs,” said David Cortman, who is an attorney with the group Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the Vermont family in the lawsuit.
“For more than two years," he continued, "state officials denied Mid Vermont Christian School a public benefit available to all other schools in Vermont just because it stood by the widely held, biblical belief that boys and girls are different. There’s a price to pay for violating constitutional rights for Christian schools and students.”
According to court records, Mid Vermont Christian staff contacted the Vermont Principals’ Association and asked that the transgender athlete not be allowed to compete.
The principals’ association said forcing the Long Trail School athlete off the team would violate the Vermont Public Accommodations Act, the Agency of Education’s Best Practices for Schools Regarding Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students, and the association’s gender identity policies.
Vermont Principals’ Association Executive Director Jay Nichols declined to comment on the settlement, but in an email message said, “We will continue to follow Vermont law and advocate for all Vermont children.”
