School banned for not playing team with trans player seeks injunction
by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First
Republished from the Vermont Standard
Mid Vermont Christian School, which was expelled from the Vermont Principals’ Association because it refused to play in a girls basketball tournament game last year against a high school using a transgender player, asked the state group this week to reconsider allowing student participation.
The written request, which was made on Tuesday, comes in the wake of a hearing in U.S. District Court in Burlington about Mid Vermont Christian students being discriminated against by not being allowed to participate in many of the same activities as other students across the state.
Chief Federal Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford heard about 90 minutes of arguments. Mid Vermont Christian is seeking a preliminary injunction against to allow their students to participate in extracurricular activities. Meanwhile lawyers representing the various defendants, including the VPA, the Vermont Agency of Education and their leaders, asked the federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed in November by Mid Vermont and two sets of parents on behalf of their children.
Crawford took all the arguments and legal filings under advisement. He did not give any idea on how long it might take to issue a written decision on the complex issues.
Mid Vermont maintains it should not face additional penalties beyond a loss when taking a forfeit based on religious or free speech grounds.