By Mike Donoghue
WOODSTOCK – A longtime Woodstock Union High School snowboard coach, who was fired after he joined a private conversation last February by two student-athletes on his team about transgender athletes, has lost his fight in federal court for a preliminary injunction to win back his job.
Coach David J. Bloch has maintained he was unlawfully fired, and both his First Amendment and due process rights were violated by School Superintendent Sherry Sousa, the Windsor Central Supervisory Union Board and others. He wanted immediate reinstatement.
Judge Christina Reiss wrote in her 51-page decision that Bloch had failed to show he faced immediate irreparable harm, and she said the injunction was not warranted.
However, certain parts of his lawsuit could continue, Reiss ruled in a decision filed after court closed on Dec. 28.
Bloch wanted to resume coaching this winter, but the district has elevated his former assistant Alyssa Smith McDonough to head coach and hired Tom Emery as the new assistant coach. Woodstock’s first scheduled meet of the winter season is next Wednesday, Jan. 10.
Sousa told the Vermont Standard that she and the district are happy with the initial ruling by Judge Reiss.
“The District is very pleased with this result. After a full evidentiary hearing, the federal court refused to reinstate Mr. Bloch, rejecting his arguments that he was exercising his free speech rights when he made comments about a transgender student/athlete on another team,” she said in an email.
“The ruling demonstrates that our decision to demand that school employees behave in a way that is consistent with a supportive, respectful and inclusive learning environment is both the right thing to do and consistent with the law,” Sousa said.
Burlington lawyers Pietro Lynn and Sean Toohey, on behalf of Sousa and the school district, maintained through testimony and legal arguments that the injunction request should be rejected. They took over the case after another law firm had drafted the dismissal letter that Sousa served Bloch on Feb. 9, 2023 — one day after the transgender conversation, testimony showed.
Bloch, who founded the snowboard program in 2011, could not be reached for comment this week about the ruling and did not respond to messages.
One of his lawyers, Mathew Hoffman, said they were unhappy by the ruling but look forward to continuing the legal battle.
“We’re disappointed that Coach Bloch cannot immediately return to the team,” Hoffman said in an email.
“No one should lose his or her job for speaking the truth. But we are pleased the court has allowed us to continue to defend Coach Bloch’s right to speak without censorship. We look forward to proving that Coach Bloch and all Americans have the right to express their opinion, especially on matters of public concern,” Hoffman said.
Bloch filed his lawsuit with five claims on July 17. He maintained his firing was in retaliation for him expressing his views, that he was discriminated against due to the content of his speech and his viewpoint; that there was an effort to impose prior restraint on his speech; that overbroad restraints had been placed on his free speech rights and there were due process violations and a vagueness in the district’s claims, court records show.
He wants to be restored to his coaching post, lift the ban on possible future positions in the district, purge records of the termination case and to win his legal fees.
The preliminary injunction was sought because the lawyers had said it was likely the case would never be ready for trial until April 2024.
Reiss wrote that she would grant in part and dismiss in part requests filed by codefendant Heather Bouchery, the interim State of Vermont Agency of Education (AOE) secretary of education and Jay Nichols, the executive director of the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA), to throw out the lawsuit.
In a September hearing, former Vermont Assistant Attorney General Ella Spottsford, the lead lawyer for Bouchery, and attorney Steven Zakrzewski, on behalf of Nichols, both attempted to show their clients had nothing to do with Bloch’s firing. Bloch, during cross examination, testified he had never met Nichols. Bouchery did not attend the court hearing.
Spottsford could not be reached for comment. Nichols, who heads the 270-member statewide school association, said Wednesday he was pleased with the ruling.
“I agree with the decision of the judge. We know there is still more to this, we know the judge will have to decide later,” Nichols said.
“In terms of the VPA, again we never have anything to do with the employment of coaches. It is not up to us. It is a local school district decision, and we don’t have anything to do with how school districts do their own policies,” Nichols said.
The AOE and VPA maintained their policies did not cause Bloch’s dismissal, Reiss noted.
Reiss heard nearly a full day of legal arguments and testimony — sometimes conflicting — from witnesses on both sides on Sept. 25. Reiss also received subsequent legal filings.
In September, Sousa, Woodstock Athletic Director Jack Boymer, and Assistant Principal Cody Tancreti testified on behalf of the defendants. They maintained Bloch had admitted to Boymer and Sousa that he made disparaging remarks in front of his team about a transgender athlete competing on the girls team for Hartford High that day.
Bloch and his lawyers maintained there was no disparaging remark about the Hartford transgender athlete.
Bloch’s lawyers from the Alliance Defending Freedom noted the coach was never told he had the right to a lawyer, a right to present witnesses and the right to appeal his dismissal. Bloch said he was never provided a copy of the investigative report that Sousa promised him when she fired him. As it turned out there was never a written report, but rather just notes that Boymer and Tancreti provided.
Bloch maintains he joined a conversation between a boy and girl on his team during a break in a meet at Jay Peak on Feb. 8, 2023. Bloch said the boy had maintained it was unfair that a transgender athlete was competing for the girls at Hartford High. A girl on the Woodstock team maintained her teammate was “transphobic,” records show.
Bloch said because he overheard the comments, he entered the private conversation and explained to the two student-athletes that he believed, based on scientific evidence, that there are only two sexes — male and female — and that the sex was determined by his or her chromosomes and are set. He said archeologists would know the difference between male and female bones that had been dug up.
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During the hearing, for the first time Woodstock school officials publicly claimed Bloch had said in front of his team that “they need to try real hard because they are competing against a guy pretending to be a girl.”
Bloch said in court that he had said under his breath something like “Let’s go out and beat that biological boy.” He was unsure if anyone heard it. He said the comment was made out of frustration on behalf of the girls on his team, Reiss noted.
One of the two students involved in the private conversation testified in court he was never questioned by the school officials during its investigation. He disputed some claims by the school district.
The female student was one of four people interviewed by the school district, including the assistant coach and another athlete — both who were not at the lodge and did not travel to the meet at Jay Peak.
While the boy testified for Bloch, the girl involved in the conversation was never called to the witness stand by the defendants.
Bloch’s lawyers submitted text messages sent to the coach by the female student supporting him and indicated she had never told anybody about the private conversation at the lodge. She said she wanted Bloch back as coach.
Tancreti’s notes indicated, without attribution, the girl was friends with the Hartford transgender student “and informed them that this had happened.”
Bloch estimated the whole conversation lasted 3 minutes or less and the comments were never directed at any opposing athlete.
Sousa, in the dismissal letter drafted for her to give Bloch, said in part, “I find that your use of disparaging names created an objectively offensive environment and constituted harassment based on gender identity, justifying terminating your contact as a snowboarding coach.”
As it turned out the dismissal letter was defective, Sousa told the court. It had cited Woodstock’s Hazing, Harassment, and Bullying policy, but it was not relevant because the reported claim involved a student from another school.
Reiss noted that Bloch testified that his opinion is motivated by his Catholic religious beliefs.
The firing came with only a couple weeks left in the season. Bloch was paid a seasonal stipend of $4,439 to coach in 2022-23.
Tancreti testified he received a text message the night of the meet from Hartford Athletic Director Jeff Moreno, with a complaint about a comment reportedly made by Bloch. Tancreti said he never spoke with Moreno during the investigation.