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FIRST ON FOX: Vermont state education agencies have paid $566,000 in damages and legal fees to a Christian school that was banned from all athletic and academic competitions for two years after its women’s basketball team refused to compete against a trans athlete in 2023.
A judge’s decision awarding plaintiffs, including Mid Vermont Christian School and its law firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the $566,000, was finalized Tuesday. The plaintiffs took legal action to challenge the ban in November 2023 and have now officially transferred their profits to them.
Pak Gazette Digital reached out to the Vermont Principals Association and the Vermont State Board of Education for a response.
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The agreement comes after a years-long saga in which all of the school’s sports teams, and even its academic teams, such as the spelling bee and math teams, had to travel out of state to compete against other schools.
The conflict dates back to an afternoon early in the 2023 school year at Mid Vermont Christian, when the school decided to forfeit a women’s basketball playoff game against a team with a trans athlete.
For them their Christian faith was more important than a game. But it was still a difficult decision and it made me cry.
“We were all in agreement that the right decision was to not compromise our beliefs and walk away, but the conversation with the players was the hardest,” Mid Vermont Christian girls basketball coach Chris Goodwin told Pak Gazette Digital.
“Because you play a 20-game season, you put in the effort and the expectation is that you enter the postseason tournament with the opportunity to see how you do and how far you can go. So there were some teary eyes and some sad faces, but in the end, everyone really understood that it was the right thing to do.”
But it was about to get much more difficult not only for the team, but for the entire school of about 111 students.
Within days of the loss, they learned that the consequences went far beyond a single game. The Vermont Principals Association banned the school from not only basketball, but also all sports and a variety of academic competitions.
“Almost immediately…they came out with a lot of force,” Goodwin said. “They were going to ban us from all athletic competition in the state… and on top of that… science fairs and spelling bees.”
What followed was not a single lost season, but years of dislocation. The school was forced to host competitions with out-of-state schools just to ensure their extracurricular programs could continue.
Instead of short bus rides to nearby schools, teams traveled hours across state lines. Family rivalries disappeared. Home gyms were quieter.
“The trip is probably triple that,” Goodwin said. “You come back at 10 at night…kids trying to do homework. I don’t want to say it’s a nightmare, but it was hard.”
Along the way, Goodwin said there were teams he coached that had the potential to win the state championship, but never got the chance.
“You know, the hard thing was we knew we had lost…we lost a couple years of participation. And we had some really good teams during those two years where, if we hadn’t won the state championship, we would have competed for the state championship.”
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Goodwin says it affected the entire culture of the school.
“That’s a big part of the culture…having games in the gym, where parents and community members come,” he said. “That just disappeared.”
When the school took the matter to court, the state and its agencies did not budge.
ADF senior adviser Dave Cortman told Pak Gazette Digital that he was surprised by how firmly Vermont education officials did not back down from their broad sanction on the small Christian school.
“It’s been surprising how stubborn the state has been,” he said. “The arguments they have presented… including saying that your beliefs are wrong…
“Their message was, ‘so you can follow your religious beliefs, boys are boys, girls are girls, that would actually violate their non-discrimination policies.’ So the irony is that they were discriminating against religious schools.”
The Mid Vermont Christian School girls’ basketball team plays following the school’s reinstatement to Vermont state sports following a U.S. Court of Appeals order in February 2024. (Alliance in Defense of Freedom)
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The turning point came in 2025, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the school reinstated while the case continued, a decision that opened the door for students to compete again.
The appeals court ruled in September 2025 that Mid Vermont Christian should be allowed to participate in state athletics, after two years of banishment had passed. The court then returned the case to the district court for further proceedings.
So Goodwin was able to get his team back on the court this season.
A bittersweet moment occurred when Mid Vermont Christian returned to the state tournament and Barre Auditorium. It’s the old state stadium that every Vermont player dreams of stepping foot in for a chance to win a championship.
“When we won our quarterfinal game to get there, our senior captain, who graduated a year ago, was on the phone with her sister who now plays for me, they were both crying on the phone, first because of the joy of achieving a goal they wanted to achieve, but also because of the sadness of her sister, who is now a freshman in college, for not having that opportunity,” Goodwin said.
The Mid Vermont Christian School women’s basketball team was reinstated into Vermont state sports following a court order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in June 2024. (Alliance in Defense of Freedom)
“That’s the hardest part of seeing the sadness these girls have to experience. Because the state decided to make the right decision, it was painful and bittersweet that we’re back, but we’re glad we’re back.”
For the school and the ADF, the satisfaction of their victory on the field goes beyond the realm of the game, as the movement to “save women’s sports” grows across the country.
Cortman recalled a moment from the process.
“In one of the court hearings, the state argued that the school was on the wrong side of history,” Cortman said.
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“The school is on the right side of history and will be in favor of following your faith in your beliefs, of doing the right thing… sometimes there is a price to pay. But it is always the right thing to do. You are always on the right side of history when you stand for the truth.”
