Banned after pulling girls’ team from games with a trans player, the school can now compete in non-gender related interschool events

By Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First

BURLINGTON – The Mid Vermont Christian School has reached a temporary agreement with the Vermont Principals’ Association to allow students at the private independent school to participate in non-athletic events sponsored by the statewide group.

MVCS is a Christ-centered school serving pre-school through 12th grade students in Quechee, Vermont. It offers affordable, accredited, and biblically integrated education with a focus on excellence in character and scholarship, its website says.

The agreement came Monday afternoon during a hearing in U.S. District Court in which Mid Vermont was seeking to have a preliminary injunction granted pending its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City on other legal issues in the case.

It is the latest step in a complex federal discrimination lawsuit filed by Mid Vermont Christian against several state and local defendants, including the head of the VPA and the Agency of Education.

Under the agreement, Mid Vermont would be allowed to take part in at least five identified VPA-sponsored co-educational competitions and activities for the time being.  More non-contact activities could be added. 

Even while Federal Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford had helped guide the parties to a mutual understanding, both sides in the contentious lawsuit asked that he reduce the partial agreement into an order. 

Mid Vermont will be allowed to participate in a series of co-ed activities, including Vermont State Spelling Bee, the Vermont Geo-Bee, the Vermont Drama Festivals, the Vermont Mathematics and Science Fairs and the Vermont Debate and Forensics League.

Crawford had asked MVC to develop a list of non-athletic events that the school thought it could participate in without gender being an issue for students.

Mid Vermont filed the lawsuit in November 2023 in response to the VPA banning the Quechee-based school from association activities. MVC has maintained it is being punished over its First Amendment rights, including for free speech and religion.  

The VPA imposed the ban after a flap first developed in February 2023 when the Long Trail School in Dorset used a player in the girls’ varsity basketball tournament that was born as a biological male, but was claiming to be a female, court records said.

Mid Vermont had tried to object to the transgender student,  who was more than 6-feet tall, on multiple grounds, including safety of players and fairness, but the VPA rejected the request.

When Mid Vermont took a forfeit for the post-season tournament game, the VPA responded by banning the school from all activities until it was willing to follow all association policies and rules.  Mid Vermont had been a VPA member for 28 years when it was banned.

While it appeared there might be agreement during the Monday court hearing for the participation in co-educational activities without much dispute, the VPA raised a last-minute objection.  The VPA wanted Mid Vermont Christian students to agree to use the third person pronouns that individual students may invoke for themselves, including they and them.

“I have a little concern that you are torpedoing this entire process,” Crawford told Connecticut attorney Steven Zakrzewski, who represents Jay Nichols, executive director of the VPA.

Crawford offered an easy solution:  students be addressed by their first names.

Zakrzewski asked for a brief break to allow him time to call Nichols, who was not on the video hearing.  When the hearing resumed, Zakrzewski said the agreement could go forward.

With that resolved, Crawford said the rest of the case will be in the hands of the federal appeals court.

The lawsuit was initially filed against Heather Bouchey, then- interim secretary of the Vermont Agency of Education; Jennifer Deck Samuelson, chair of the Vermont Education Board, Jay Nichols, executive director of the VPA, Christine Bourne, Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union; the Hartland School Board, Randall Gawel, school superintendent for the Orange East Supervisory Union, and the Waits River Valley School Board.

Zoie Saunders, who is the new interim Secretary of Education for Gov. Phil Scott, is now a defendant replacing Bouchey in the lawsuit, according to civil court rules.

The lawsuit maintains there is irreparable harm, including financial, that the VPA and AOE has inflicted on the Mid Vermont Christian students and their families.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensation for damages inflicted, was initially filed by the school and two families using lawyers from the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Vermont Standard Managing Editor Tess Hunter contributed to this report.