A Vermont high school is suing state officials after they were banned from all sporting and academic events for refusing to allow its women’s basketball team to compete against a transgender player, Fox News reported.
Mid Vermont Christian School says they were banned from all athletic games after losing to a Long Trail High School girls’ basketball team that had a biological male on its team on Feb. 21.
The Christian PK-12 school says they were “irreparably harmed by being denied participation” and “losing the ability to play competitive sports and academic competition,” reads its lawsuit, filed by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
Mid Vermont is suing after they said the ADF banned them from participating in all sporting and academic events. WCAX
The ADF is a Christian legal advocacy group that works to defend and preserve free speech to expand Christian practices within public schools and in government, ban abortion, and restrict LGBTQ rights, its website states.
The Vermont Principals Association (VPA) took immediate action following Mid Vermont’s decision to cancel its game against Long Trail, stating that the school violated its policies on “commitment to racial, gender, and disability awareness” and about “gender identity.” “
The VPA initially issued a statement in February saying that “VPA policies prohibit discrimination and/or harassment of students on school property or at school functions by students or employees.”
The lawsuit filed by Mid Vermont stated that they were only acting in accordance with the school’s religious beliefs. SOPA/LightRocket Images via Getty Images
Mid Vermont refuted such claims in their lawsuit and made clear that they were only acting in accordance with the religious beliefs governing their school.
Mid Vermont says VPA was “denying the Christian school and its students from participating in the state’s tuition program and sports league because of its religious beliefs.”
The small Christian school, located in Quechee, lists itself on its official website as “intentionally non-denominational,” emphasizing that its education is strictly rooted in “the mind of Christ.”
Mid Vermont says in its lawsuit that they were “irreparably harmed by being denied participation” and “losing the ability to play competitive sports and academic competition.”
“The State is entitled to its own views, but it is not entitled, nor is it constitutional, to force private religious schools throughout the state to follow that orthodoxy as a condition of participation in the Vermont tuition program and in the state athletic association. the lawsuit says.
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The VPA has since expelled Mid Vermont from its association.
“If you don’t want to follow the VPA rules, that’s fine. But then you are simply not a member of the VPA,” said the association’s executive director, Jay Nichols, according to VTDigger. “It’s pretty simple. “That’s really all we’re going to say about it.”
Long Trail had already competed in 20 regular season games before its matchup against Mid Vermont was canceled.
There are 18 U.S. state legislatures that have banned transgender students from competing in high school sports, according to the Movement Advancement Project, as Vermont is one of the few states that allows it.
Mid Vermont Christian School Principal Vicky Fogg expressed disappointment in the VPA’s ruling.
“Cancelling our membership is not a solution and does not address the very real issue of safety and justice facing women’s sports in our beloved state,” Fogg wrote.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn