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Vermont Christian School Wins Suit Against State After Being Punished for Trans Athlete Protest

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  April 30, 2026 10:30 AM

In 2023, the Mid Vermont Christian School's girls' basketball team refused to compete against a team that had a trans athlete. For that thought crime, the Vermont Principals' Association and the Vermont State Board of Education banned the school from all competitions, including academic ones. 

Now the school has won their suit against these agencies, who were forced to pay almost $600 for discriminating against the Christian school.

Here's more:

The conflict dates back to an afternoon early in the 2023 school year at Mid Vermont Christian, when the school decided to forfeit a girls’ basketball postseason game against a team with a trans athlete.

Their Christian faith was more important to them than a game. But it was still a hard call, and it brought some tears.

"We were all in agreement that the right decision was to not compromise our beliefs and to withdraw, but the conversation with the players was the hardest," Mid Vermont Christian girls' basketball coach Chris Goodwin told Fox News Digital.

"Because you play a 20-game season, and you put in the work and the expectation is that you enter the postseason tournament with a shot to see how you're going to do and to see how far you can get. So there were some teary eyes, and some sad faces, but in the end, they all really did understand that it was the right thing to do."

This is a win for freedom of conscience as well as girls' rights.

That is true.

And maybe taxpayers will get sick of paying these lawsuits and vote for better politicians.

Yes, it is.

Title IX of the Civil Rights Act gives these girls the right to their own team. The First Amendment gives them the right to object. That they won in court is a good sign that sanity is slowly being restored.