They also excluded Mid-Vermont Christian School and its students from participating in all co-ed academic competitions — the Geo-Bee, the Science and Math Fair, and the Debate and Forensics League. That effectively cut our students out of all state extracurricular activities — all because the families and staff at our school believe biological differences between boys and girls are important and given by God, putting us in line with what the great majority of Americans believe.
What’s more, in decrying our right to think and live by our religious principles, the VPA not only denied our First Amendment rights, it acted with impermissible hostility to our religious views — something the U.S. Supreme Court has said is always unconstitutional.
Thankfully, our students and their families understood what was at stake and respected the position our administrators took. With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, we filed a federal lawsuit challenging state officials’ decision to exclude our school from those opportunities.
S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that Vermont must allow us back into the state’s athletic association. It was a sweet victory for our girls as our team reached the state semifinals our first year back in the league.
Now, we’ve successfully settled the sports side of our case with the VPA. For my daughter and the other girls on her team, this came down to more than just the discomfort with competing against a male body; it was a breach of their constitutionally protected freedoms and their Christian beliefs on sex.
Our case is not over, however. Vermont officials have barred our Christian school and its students from participating in the state’s tuition program and other public benefit programs, so our attorneys are continuing to litigate those issues. I’m confident they’ll reach a favorable outcome on that front, too.
Vermont is slowly realizing there is a price to pay for violating the constitutional rights of Christian schools and families.
