Christian school must be reinstated after girls’ team refused to play against male athlete: court

September 11, 2025

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) to reinstate a Christian school after its girl’s basketball team forfeited a game against a team with a male on its roster.

The Christian Post reports that the appeals court found that VPA officials acted with “hostility” toward religious beliefs when it released a unanimous opinion on Tuesday in the case of Mid Vermont Christian School et al v. Zoie Saunders et al.

VPA banned the school from participating in future sporting events after the girls’ basketball team refused to play Long Trail Mountain Lions in February 2023, due to the inclusion of a male athlete who identified as female on the Lion’s team.

Circuit Judge Michael Park, who authored the opinion, wrote that the VPA’s actions were “hostile to Mid Vermont’s religious views” and added, “The VPA likely violated Mid Vermont’s First Amendment right to free exercise of religion because its consideration of Mid Vermont’s case was not neutral.”

According to the Christian Post, Park concluded that the VPA ignored it’s own procedural requirements regarding its disciplinary process.

Those requirements include “a formal investigation, a preliminary report, written notice of a probable violation, a recommended penalty, and an opportunity to be heard at a hearing involving counsel and evidence.”

Park continued, “But in its rush to impose an ‘immediate’ expulsion, the VPA flouted its own rules. In upholding the expulsion, the VPA doubled down on that hostility by challenging the legitimacy of the school’s religious beliefs.”

The circuit court ruling reversed a June 2024 lower court decision against Mid Vermont Christian School in which U.S. District Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford for the District of Vermont ruled against the school, saying that, “the state has a legitimate interest in extending the protection of inclusion to transgender students.”

Photo: top, Credit: Mid Vermont Christian School