The Vermont Principals’ Association this week settled a lawsuit brought by the Mid Vermont Christian School and two families after the association barred the school from participating in state athletics.
The school was first banned from participating in state sports in 2023 after it forfeited a girls’ basketball game rather than play against a team with a transgender player. The Vermont Principals’ Association said at the time the school violated the association’s nondiscrimination policies.
Fox News reported that the settlement agreement was finalized Tuesday. The principals’ association agreed to pay $566,000 to Mid Vermont Christian School, the two families and their law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom.
For the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative legal group, it’s a noteworthy victory. The firm and other out-of-state conservative legal groups have had a growing presence in Vermont’s courts, litigating matters in education and politics.
Mid Vermont Christian School and Alliance Defending Freedom are also challenging Vermont’s education reform law, Act 73, arguing that the law’s set of provisions around public tuition dollars discriminates against religious approved independent schools in Vermont.
That litigation remains pending.
David Cortman, senior counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a press release that Vermont Principals’ Association officials “denied Mid Vermont Christian School a public benefit available to all other schools in Vermont just because it stood by the widely held, biblical belief that boys and girls are different.”
“There’s a price to pay for violating constitutional rights for Christian schools and students,” he said.
Jay Nichols, the Vermont Principals’ Association executive director, said he could not comment on the settlement but noted that the organization “will continue to follow Vermont law and advocate for all Vermont children.”
Steve Zakrzewski, an attorney representing the Vermont Principals’ Association, said in an email that the organization chose to settle the matter “based primarily on the costs and burdens imposed by ongoing litigation,” but noted the association “denies any wrongdoing.”
Zakrzewski pointed to a 2024 U.S. District Court decision that denied the school’s request for a preliminary injunction. That decision was then overturned by a federal appeals court in September. The court said the school’s teams must be allowed to participate but returned the case to the lower court for further action.
The parties agreed to resolve the case “before engaging in further substantive proceedings in the District Court,” Zakrzewski said.
Mid Vermont Christian has since been allowed to compete in state sports, following the September court decision.
