Christian school scores massive payday after state banned it from all competitions for years over trans agenda

A Christian school in Vermont has settled for a huge payout in a fight with the state school principals’ association over their forced “transgender” agenda for schools.

The facts of the case involving Mid Vermont Christian school reveal that after school officials had a basketball team withdraw when faced with sending their girls out to face a male on the opposing team, the VPA retaliated.

In fact, the school was banned not just from sports, but from all events sanctioned by the Vermont Principals’ Association, to include science fairs, math fairs, drama competitions, debate contests and much more for two years.

The school now is being paid $556,000 for the group’s attacks, according to a report posted by Fox News.

“A settlement agreement following mediation was finalized on Tuesday that awarded the plaintiffs, including the Mid Vermont Christian School and its law firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the $566,000,” the report said.

The fight erupted in 2023 when the school decided against sending its girls’ basketball team against a team with a “transgender” student, a male posing as a girl.

“We were all in agreement that the right decision was to not compromise our beliefs and to withdraw, but the conversation with the players was the hardest,” Mid Vermont Christian girls’ basketball coach Chris Goodwin told Fox News Digital.

“Because you play a 20-game season, and you put in the work and the expectation is that you enter the postseason tournament with a shot to see how you’re going to do and to see how far you can get. So there were some teary eyes, and some sad faces, but in the end, they all really did understand that it was the right thing to do.”

The VPA’s retaliation then banned the school from basketball, from all athletics, and all the rest of its academic competitions.

Goodwin explained the ideologues at the VPA “came out very strongly.”

The result was “years of dislocation,” the report said.

“The school was forced to arrange competitions with schools out of state just to make sure their extracurricular programs could continue. Instead of short bus rides to nearby schools, teams traveled hours across state lines. Familiar rivalries disappeared. Home gyms sat quieter.”

Goodwin explained the punishment reached down to students who were “getting back at 10 o’clock at night” and then “trying to do homework.”

The “culture” of the school, “having games in your gym, where parents and community members come,” he said, “disappeared.”

In court, VPA officials accused the school of having “wrong” beliefs.

“Their message was, ‘in order for you to follow your religious beliefs, boys are boys, girls are girls, that would actually violate their nondiscrimination policies.’ So the irony of it was, they were discriminating against religious schools,” a legal team spokesman said.

Then last year a ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that the school be reinstated while the case continued. And ultimately a settlement was reached.

WorldNetDaily previously reported the 2nd Circuit found VPA officials likely “displayed hostility toward the school’s religious beliefs.”

That ruling said the lawsuit by the school could continue, but officials had to allow its students to resume participating in programs immediately.

Writing for a three-judge panel of the court, Judge Michael H. Park said the principals’ association didn’t just act hostilely toward religion, it also imposed a punishment that was “unprecedented, overbroad, and procedurally irregular.”

VICTORY – $566,000!

Our client, Mid Vermont Christian School, has won more than half a million dollars after it was punished for standing up for women’s sports.

Read more in the @FoxNews exclusive below.@JackThompsonFOX https://t.co/hAjvmFKj0C

— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) April 29, 2026

‘Displayed hostility’: Christian school banned for religious beliefs wins legal victory