Mid-Vermont Christian School banned from tournament play over transgender decision, promises appeal
“Cancelling our membership is not the solution”
By Guy Page
The private Christian school banned yesterday from future Vermont high school athletic tournaments and other Vermont Principals Association activities said it is “disappointed” with the decision and promised to appeal.
“Mid Vermont Christian school is disappointed with the decision of the VPA Executive Council to ban us from participation in all VPA activities. We intend to appeal the decision. Cancelling our membership is not a solution and does nothing to deal with the very real issue of safety and fairness facing women’s sports in our beloved state. We urge the VPA to reconsider its policies, and balance the rights of every athlete in the state,” Head of School Vicky Fogg said today.
The boys basketball team for Mid-Vermont Christian School, based in White River Junction, experienced a thrilling ride to the Division 4 state championship game, losing to bi-state high school Rivendell. But it was a decision regarding the girls’ basketball team that led to being booted from future VPA tournament action. Last month, the MVCS girls’ team forfeited rather than take the court against Long Trail School and its 6’2”, biological male center.
Yesterday, the VPA ruled the school ineligible to join any future “dance” – sports slang for exciting, end-of-year basketball championship tournaments.
“With feedback from membership at large are diversity equity and inclusion in Activities Committee and our activities standards committee, the VPA’s executive Council met today March 13th 2023 to discuss the relevant forfeiture. The result was a determination that policies have been violated at the school level, thus there is an immediate determination of an ineligibility for Mid-Vermont Christian in VPA sanctioned activities and tournaments going forward,” a VPA statement said. The March statement followed a similar Feb. 27 statement.
The VPA decision was greeted with disappointment, concern for freedom of religion, and even outrage by some Vermonters. VDC solicited comments from over 50 people from all over the socio-political spectrum, including many lawmakers. Below are some of the responses:
“The VPA appears to have been overtaken by far-left influencers to such an extent that it is relying on the heavy hand of authority rather than negotiation to resolve this delicate situation,” former lawmaker Bob Frenier (R-Chelsea) said. “But they also support the anti-Christian leftist Democrats in the legislature who want to deny tuition vouchers to religious schools. That authoritarian instinct to deny religious expression is dangerous and I wonder if the VPA polled their members before exacerbating this situation.”
School choice advocate David Kelley defended the VPA decision because it teaches students the importance of following the rules. “One of the most important lessons of high school sports is the importance of abiding by the rules. We live in a world that depends on rules–and laws–and if we can’t follow them then we need to be prepared to accept the consequences. If we believe the rules are unjust then we can work nonviolently to change them. But we don’t write our own rules.”
“I wrote to the VPA telling them that I am very concerned about their decision,” Burlington school parent Jennifer Hume said. “The issue of men and biological males wanting to participate in women’s sports deserves a long and thoughtful study and rigorous discussion that includes everyone. I personally don’t think the solution can ever be to have men compete with women who don’t want to compete against men.
“There could certainly be some creative solutions that no one has thought of yet but to find those, we need to thoroughly and intelligently examine the issue from all angles,” Hume said. “The decision to exclude an entire school full of young people from activities that bring joy, excellent physical and mental health, and that teach discipline and sportsmanship will be detrimental to society as a whole and is cruel to the young people who are being excluded.”
South Hero farmer and free speech activist Robert Fireovid said Vermonters need to get organized.
“A non-profit, something like “Vermonters Against Dangerous Ideologies in Schools” (VADIS), composed mostly of volunteers is needed to educate the public about the dangers youth of ideological (not fact-based) concepts being used in the schools. Concepts such as the Doctrine of Gender Identity, Critical Race Theory, and Global Citizenship,” Fireovid said. “The organization would provide presentation materials to volunteers who would give presentations in their local libraries, churches, and submit articles for publication in their local newspapers. The organization would hire consultants to help prepare and/or review presentation materials. Volunteers in the organization could do double-duty (outside the organization) to help candidates for school board elections.
“The Green Mountain Boys didn’t win Vermont’s freedom without organizing. We have to organize today if we’re ever going to have a chance of winning this fight.”
A retired UVM scientist, Gerry Silverstein of South Burlington, commented: “Vermont preaches “diversity” but, truth be told, the only values and beliefs that are deemed acceptable in the State of Vermont are those detailed in edicts issued by those who control the levers of power.”
And finally, the Hathaway family of Essex Junction en masse sent this note: “This is a real inflection point for our family. While most of our friends have left the state quietly for fear of retaliation from the schools and local media, we remain here, with a great foundation in a local private school, knowing our kids can continue a solid education while living out our family values. Now the public schools, the LEADERS of those public schools that we are forced to pay for, are condemning our private institutions. What options are we left with for our kids? We commend MVCS for taking a stand, the time is now to live out our values.”
Aaron Warner sourced and contributed information included in this news report.
Categories: Sports
Not a surprise. The VPA is the Kremlin of crony woke-ism for Vermont education.
And they wonder why there is so much hate towards the very people they claim to be protecting.
I encourage everyone to read up on how to rise to COMMUNISM. They have to create Chaos so bad that the people then beg Government to just fix it.
And here is more proof.
Democrats always say they follow the science till it comes time to follow this science.
I’m socialist from way back. The phrase has been coopted by Marxism. SO HAVE COUNTLESS INSTITUTIONS.
Hopefully, more incidents such as this one here will rouse people.
I attended a women’s Zoom meeting back in the fall, before the elections. Many, maybe most, were lesbian. Being a man, I was required to be silent and observe. Nothing wrong with that. In the Chat there was a brief discussion on voting. The majority stated that they would vote Republican in order to counter the depredations coming from the Democrats.
Many old radicals feel that way.
“The goal of Socialism is Communism.” Vladimer Lenin founder of the world’s first Communist Country. The U.S.S.R, Union of Socialists Soviet Republics. May have had known a little about the subject.
“They have to create Chaos so bad that the people then beg Government to just fix it.
And here is more proof.” HERE! HERE! WELL SAID!
The VPA has drank the Kool-Aid and will continue its march like lemmings to the sea.
The VPA has boxed itself in to a corner it’s does not have the ability to get out of gracefully.( Courage has not been one of their forte’s)
Perhaps it is time to work outside this I’ll conceived box and establish a league where there is true respect. I guarantee there will be more than one team and school system that would like to join it having grown tired of the politics associated with the current lack of leadership.
In the mean time , others lose out on their opportunities so others can continue on the path of reinforcing VT as a fringe environment.
It appears that the VPA has been captured by woke insanity. Like the adults in the story of Emperor’s New Clothes the principals are too cowardly to admit they’re supporting fiction rather than speaking truth; which is that they can see the naked body of the emperor. “It is neither kind nor respectful to cater to the fantasies of the very young or very confused.”
It seems that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is more about catering to a small vocal minority. If one does not agree with their precepts then one and in this case an entire school is excluded. Inclusion is the opposite of exclusion, so if one believes in inclusion then those with different beliefs should not be excluded. Anyone though who thinks that it is fair for biological males to compete with biological females does not really believe in the rights of women. This is an attack on women and will ultimately destroy women’s sports. Can we stop this nonsense? Just form a tranny league and let the trannies compete with each other.
Excellent, and thank you for all of your comments.
Three words: Civil. Rights. Attorney.
Keep up the good fight – the MAJORITY of people are behind you! As are ALL of those who possess sanity.
Check out and join the Vermont Family Alliance. You can find them on Facebook and you can sign up for theit updates on the whole range of issues that place our young people at risk and deny parents the right to direct the care of their minor children.
VERY Sad that Wokism is deleting the differenecs between
boys and girls, Men and Women.
“Our generation” marvelled at the wonderful differences,
and we created healthy respectful HAPPY families.
This will only end when parents see how stupid and awful this is.
To that end I strongly suggest that in one school all the boys wear a dress and join the girls team. Then they will easily beat every team in the state. It sounds stupid but this is the only way to defeat these idiots.
Long Trail School’s ratio of biological males on the girls basketball team to student population in grades 9-12 is 1 in about 100. Applying the same ratio to Champlain Valley Union High School, with a student population of 1345, results in a girls basketball team of 13 biological males and not one girl, because the biological males beat all the girls in the tryouts. The NYT reported that the number of young people identifying as transgender has doubled in the last 5 years. If this keeps up girls athletics is doomed.
My children were raised in VT and they received an outstanding education. The VPA is “off the rails”. How can these charlatans enforce group punishment, that they would never condone in a classroom? I assume EVERY athlete in the school will be denied their right to participate to support this political stand.
My solution is simple. Why not have separate teams for boys, girls and coed teams for those who choose to play against both sexes?
Has The World gone nuts? There is only two sexes, male or female!!
Nuttier than squirrel scat.
Yes, there are only two God created genders, male and female. All the others were created by the godless Democrats…
Show me a woman who transitions to compete against men–rather than the opposite, which is almost always the case–and I’ll take the issue more seriously.
Our civilized society has evolved with, and a majority of common-sense guided folks are still quite comfortable with sex segregation in some venues, mainly for the protection of women. Those venues are contact sports, public restrooms/changing facilities and the prison system. Traditionally, the sorting criteria has been ANATOMY not psychology, in the interest of protecting women and to most thinking people that makes sense. Long before this “gender enlightenment”, we did not insist that gay men used the womens’ restroom and vice versa in order to not mix up those who are attracted to each other. It was ANATOMY not PSYCHOLOGY that was the segregation criterion then. Athletics should be no different. The easy way to deal with this is by renaming criteria for participation “XY” and “XX”. You can’t cherry pick when you want to involve scientific fact and when feewings should be the deciding factor. It’s either that or we no longer have sex-segregated sports, and have only the “hockey team” and it will be made up of the best players which will be overwhelmingly male. The Federal Civil Rights Code known as Title IX has been hijacked by a contingent of mentally disordered and sexually confused people and society is being dragged along for the ride by the long, bony finger of progressive indignation. We voted for this.
How can this be happening in this country? Isn’t this a form of discrimination?
YES
Exactly.
I disagree with the VPA’s decision, students should only be allowed to play on any sports team with the Gender they are born with
So then let all the vpa members daughters change in a locker room with a he/ she and see if that doesn’t change anything? This is completely unacceptable women sports is being erased by men and not one feminist is standing up? Where is the women soccer players? They complain about everything.
They’re busy getting trounced by 8th grade boys.
NOW; just why don’t we all move to Florida, where if you think this is a mess, you wouldn’t want to live there at all. They don’t want any history taught about black persons, no LBGT PEOPLE CAN TEACH IN THEIR SCHOOLS, they are thrEW OUT ALL BOOKS HAVING TO DO WITH THE HISTORY OF BLKACKS IN THIS COUNTRY, AND NOW IN SOME CITIES THEY ARE PPICKING ON TH E JEWISH POEPLE, (just like Hhitler did in THE1930’s. Throwing all library books that even mention a black person, gave DeSantis permission to take over like hs is PUTIN, or his bud the ex-trump, who so far has gotten away with just about eerything that most judges would throw the book at. He is still in control of our House on congress and we need to get a lOT .. of those representatives out on their ear. we shouldn’t let anyone cause the trouble they have alk caused by listening io the dumbest president on earth and the crookest person in the last century. When do people start defying him and everyone else to stop this maniiacal strategy and do it the way we always have. What is going on in this country anyway. It is time for people to wake up and SPEAK UP and not let any of those type of people TELL US what is best for us. They have all gotten too big for the pants they wear. CLEAN HOUSE!!!. As far as sports goes, DON’T LET IT GET STARTED HERE. PROTEST., THIS HAS GOT TO STOP, RIGHT HERE IN THIS STATE AND MAYBE OTHERS WILL CATCH ON. TRUMP AND HIS GANGSTERS DESERVE ALL THE HATE WE CAN DO WITH OUTR TALKING. HE NEEDS RETRIBUTION AND SO DO A LOT OTHERS.
And now Jewish peopole are being bothered in other states, Now don’t tell me that doesn’t sound like HITLER and the 1930’s. STOP THIS ! Can you imagine wha would happen if Notre Dame were suddenly left off the basketball rooster of playing games, because they are a christian school.
One needs only to look at the numbers (science?) to see that there are substantially more males opting to compete in female sports than females in male sports. It begs the question; why? The answer is simple, it has to do with fairness and equality.
The godless Left will allow no other religion but theirs.
I wonder how many members of the board that made this decision are women, and if they for a second put themselves in the place of these young women and considered how they’d feel if they had to compete against biological males in a similar setting, with no say in the matter. It’s so sad that this is happening at a time when there was real progress in acceptance of all lifestyles and identities. I’m sure none of these young people wanted to be put at odds with each other and these ridiculous rules make it impossible for them to not be. There will be so much unnecessary resentment from these kinds of situations. It could have been an opportunity for the community to show caring for the needs of someone who is biologically male but identifies as a woman. There could be an attempt to be MORE inclusive and find ways to easily include transgender youth in sports, such as was suggested, with teams comprised of people who all want to play on a team where biology is not taken into account. The solution VPA came up with excludes and discriminates against an entire school while drawing unnecessary negative attention to the transgender youth who also, I presume, just wants to play basketball, and will inevitably suffer from having this turned into a lose-lose situation and now having the whole world fixated on their gender identity, as well, which is a very personal thing.
Here are the people on the Vermont Principal’s Association Council
2022 – 2023 Executive Council
Beth O’Brien, President, Principal, Richford Schools
Rebecca Fillion, President Elect, Principal, Twin Valley Elementary School
Bob Thibault, Past President, Principal, Leland and Gray School
Chris Young, NASSP State Rep, Principal, North Country High School
Holly Rouelle, NAESP State Rep, Principal, Gertrude Chamberlain School
Pam Arnold, Retired Member
Sarah Pickering, Principal, Arlington Memorial High School
Adam Bunting, Principal, Champlain Valley Union High School
Erica LeClair, Assistant Principal, Colchester High School
Nathan McNaughton, Principal, Riverside Middle School
Christie Martin, Co-Principal, Missisquoi Valley Union Middle School
Patrick Guckin, Tech Center Director, St. Johnsbury Academy
Mary Guggenberger, Principal, Killington Elementary School
VPA Staff
Jay Nichols, VPA Executive Director
Interesting I see principal, Adam Bunting on this list of virtue signaling “leaders”. If he has a high school aged daughter. I wonder how he’d feel if she was staring at a penis in the locker room before every game and practice. I bet he wouldn’t like it but he’d be too much of a coward to condemn it.
Thank you very much for downloading this list!
The DEPT OR EQUITY AND INCLUSION strikes again. We are teaching our kids to believe things that aren’t true and are punishing them for not going along with something that directly harms them if they do. I’m glad the school is standing up to this. I don’t expect any public schools to do anything other then to follow orders. The parents need to stand up to this. Mvcs needs to see this through.
If you’d like to write the voa, here’s the form…
https://vpaonline.org/contact-us/
Thank you for the VPA link!
In order to promote inclusion the Vermont Principal’s Association excludes an entire school.
Anyone and everyone who thinks boys can be girls by thinking they are, should not be allowed anywhere near schools or kids, and frankly will never have anything people with a working brain should listen too. Its biology that cannot be changed and is decided at conception. Period.