The Vermont Principals’ Association is $566,000 poorer for the way it treated Mid Vermont Christian School when the school protested having its girls teams play against a transgender opponent.
Three years ago, the Christian school forfeited a basketball game rather than play a team with a male who said he was female. The Vermont Principals’ Association banned the school from playing in state athletic events.
A federal appeals court ruled in September that the VPA could not ban the school, leading to the $566,000 settlement, according to WCAX-TV.
As part of the settlement, the VPA promised it would not enact a similar ban in the future.
This is the way. It’s the only thing they understand. Hit them in the wallet.
Vermont pays $566K in damages, legal fees to Christian school it banned from all sports competitions for yearshttps://t.co/IlSMdkwCNR
— Pitt Fan 1 (@driscoll1142) April 29, 2026
“This settlement is a giant win not only for the First Amendment but obviously for the school itself,” said David Cortman with the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the school in court.
“Religious schools and families shouldn’t be punished merely for engaging in their religious beliefs and religious exercise and we appreciate the VPA for actually coming to this conclusion and agreeing to settle the case,” Cortman said.
“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,” Cortman said, according to a news release on the ADF’s website.
“For more than two years, 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,” he said.
“I never thought I would be in court for simply adhering to my Christian and commonsense belief that boys and girls are different,” Chris Goodwin, coach of the girls’ basketball team, said.
“At Mid Vermont Christian School, we strive to exemplify biblical truth in and through everything we do,” he said.
“As a coach, I always want my team to play in fair and safe competitions. As a dad, I want my daughter to know that she should always stand up for her beliefs and should never be punished for that decision,” she said.
The school’s battles are not yet over, though.
Litigation against the state Agency of Education is still moving forward, because students at religious schools have been banned from participating in the state’s tuition program and other public benefit programs, according to the Vermont Daily Chronicle.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City said in its ruling that the VPA was hostile to the school because of its beliefs, and granted a preliminary injunction to let its teams back into state competitions.
“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 judges wrote.
“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.
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