Coached fired for transgender comment receives 17 times annual stipend, school admits he didn’t violate hazing policy
by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First
Republished from the March 7 Vermont Standard newsletter
A longtime Woodstock snowboarding coach, who was fired a year ago after he joined in a brief discussion by a couple of team members about transgender athletes, has settled his unlawful discharge lawsuit against the school district, Vermont Principals’ Association and the Vermont Agency of Education for $75,000.
The settlement was reached during talks with an early neutral evaluator, Gregory S. Clayton of Montpelier, on Jan. 25, but specific details were withheld until Town Meeting Day.
David J. Bloch will receive $50,000 — nearly 17 times his annual stipend for overseeing the Woodstock Union High School team, according to his lawyers. Bloch founded the Woodstock snowboarding team in 2011 and was paid $4,439 for the seasonal coaching job.
The other $25,000 will go to the Alliance for Defending Freedom, which offered to represent Bloch for free because it said it believed in his legal fight.
The payments will be made on behalf of the school district, the VPA and the Vermont AOE, Matthew W. Hoffmann, an attorney with ADF, said.
Both the Agency of Education and school district admitted the conversation by Coach Bloch did not violate the state-mandated Harassment, Hazing, and Bullying policy when he was fired in February 2023, Hoffmann said.
“The money is the cherry on top,” Bloch said about the payment. “I was able to defend myself.”
Bloch said he was amazed by the hundreds of people from all walks of life who mentioned they supported him and stated on Tuesday afternoon, “This is a huge win. The town now knows.”
He said he heard no pushback to his First Amendment stance.
Bloch and the ADF have always maintained the coach had respectfully expressed his view that males are biologically different than females and that those differences generally give males an advantage in sports.
The Woodstock boys and girls were at a snowboarding meet at Jay Peak in February 2023 when Hartford High had a transgender athlete competing according to Bloch’s lawsuit.
Two Woodstock Union student-athletes — a boy and a girl — were having a private conversation in the ski lodge about the situation during a break in the competition. Bloch, who overheard part of the chat, said he joined the private conversation briefly and mentioned that males have a physical advantage over females, the lawsuit said.
“I’m supporting these girls,” he said about his team members. Bloch said boys have an advantage due to bone structure and testosterone.
Bloch said several other coaches have been unfairly fired and he believed he had to stand up on behalf of all of them.
It was unclear how Hartford High, whose team traveled on the same bus as Woodstock, heard about the private conversation, but it filed a hearsay complaint that night, records show. The Woodstock Union High School assistant principal and athletic director did a brief investigation the following morning. By early afternoon, Sousa fired Bloch.
Bloch maintained in his lawsuit that he was engaged in constitutionally protected speech and that school officials never provided him his rights, including how to appeal the dismissal, nor gave him a copy of the investigative report resulting in the obstruction of his First Amendment and due process rights by Superintendent Sherry Sousa; the Windsor Central Supervisory Union Board; Jay Nichols, executive director of the VPA; and Heather Bouchey, interim secretary of the Vermont AOE.
For more on this, please see March 7 edition of the Vermont Standard