The Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) punished a girls basketball coach and his team after they forfeited a game in a state tournament because they didn’t want to play against a team with a boy on it.
VPA, which apparently didn’t care about the girls’ safety, barred the Mid Vermont Christian School from participating in VPA-sponsored competitions.
Coach Chris Goodwin made the decision to protect the girls on his team. He understands the risk. He coached his four daughters and filled in coaching a boys’ basketball team. Goodwin said boys just play “at a different speed, a different force…it’s a different game.”
Mid Vermont Christian School sued the VPA. The school lost in a lower court, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in the school’s favor.
The school’s legal counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom, announced that VPA paid the school over half a million dollars in damages. Great news, but the fight is not over in the state of Vermont.
“ADF attorneys are continuing to litigate the case, Mid Vermont Christian School v. Saunders. Vermont officials have yet again excluded all religious schools, including Mid Vermont, and their students from participating in the state’s tuition program and other public benefit programs.”
Watch the video below for their story.
VICTORY in Mid Vermont Christian School v. Saunders today!
Read more: https://t.co/tWIDKtFa4O pic.twitter.com/DOrIbHfUTA
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) September 9, 2025
Photo credit: Alliance Defending Freedom
