Overview
- The court finalized a $566,000 payment to Mid Vermont Christian School and its lawyers, and the filing dismissed Vermont Principals’ Association director Jay Nichols from the case.
- The dispute began in 2023 when the school forfeited a girls’ basketball playoff game to avoid playing a team with a transgender athlete, after which the state athletics body banned the school from all sports and some academic contests.
- An appeals court in September 2025 ordered the school back into state athletics while the case continued, which let students return to league play and postseason tournaments.
- Separate claims remain active against Agency of Education Secretary Zoie Saunders, State Board Chair Jennifer Samuelson, and the Waits River Valley School Board over alleged exclusion of religious schools from tuition and other public-benefit programs, according to the school’s lawyers.
- Coaches say the ban forced long out-of-state trips, erased local rivalries, and cost students chances at titles, illustrating how a statewide activities gatekeeper like the VPA can cut off both sports and academic opportunities.