VT Christian school, families appeal to 2nd Circuit challenging discriminatory expulsion from state athletics

NEW YORK – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Mid Vermont Christian School and one of its families filed an opening brief Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The school and family are challenging Vermont officials for expelling the Christian school and its students from participating in the state’s athletics association because of their religious beliefs.

Mid Vermont Christian School is a faith-based pre-K-12 school located in Quechee, Vermont, whose religious beliefs drive and form the foundation for everything it does. Last year, the VPA kicked Mid Vermont out of its athletic association because the school forfeited a girls’ basketball game against another girls’ team with a male athlete who identified as female because doing so violated its religious convictions. Although the VPA has historically prohibited boys from playing on girls’ sports teams “to protect opportunities for girl athletes,” it recently adopted policies that allow males who identify as female to participate in girls’ sports and is demanding Mid Vermont’s girls’ teams play against teams with male athletes or not play at all. The VPA refuses to let the school back in unless it capitulates and agrees to force its girls to compete against teams with male players.

“No religious school or their students and parents should be denied equal access to publicly available benefits simply for holding to their religious beliefs,” said ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker. “The Vermont Principals’ Association took the drastic step of permanently expelling Mid Vermont and its students from all middle-school and high-school sporting events simply because Mid Vermont forfeited a single girls’ basketball game to avoid violating the school’s religious beliefs. And to justify its actions, the VPA used discretionary policies applied on a ‘case-by-case basis’ to do so. The VPA’s blatant act of discrimination and hostility toward Mid Vermont’s beliefs violates the First Amendment. We are urging the court to uphold constitutional protections by guaranteeing the school can fully participate while still adhering to its religious beliefs.”

“[T]he VPA allowed three schools to forfeit games against one school's girls' basketball team to avoid competing against a player who had a mask exemption. But the VPA immediately expelled Mid Vermont for forfeiting a game to avoid violating its religious beliefs by competing against a girls' basketball team allowing a male to compete as a girl,” the opening brief states. “The VPA cannot wield such unbridled discretion, accept when schools forfeit games for secular reasons, and then expel Mid Vermont for forfeiting a game based on its religious beliefs.” Nor can the VPA exclude “an otherwise eligible religious school from a public benefit solely because of its religious exercise.”

Despite 28 years of prior participation in the league, the school is now barred from VPA activities—effectively blacklisting the school from all VPA-sponsored sporting events in the state—simply for forfeiting the basketball game.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

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