Christian high school girls' basketball team refused to compete against male opponent — now the whole school has been punished

Last month, the girls' varsity basketball team at Mid Vermont Christian School forfeited a playoff game rather than compete against Long Trail Mountain, a team that has a male player who claims to be female. Now, the Vermont Principals' Association has decided to punish the Christian school as a result.

On Monday, the VPA released a statement banning MVCS from all "VPA sanctioned activities and tournaments going forward." In other words, MVCS — a school that teaches pre-K all the way through the 12th grade — cannot participate in any athletic or interscholastic event that falls under the VPA's purview. The vote from VPA's executive board, comprising 15 members, was unanimous.

"If you don’t want to follow VPA rules, that’s fine," said Jay Nichols, the VPA's executive director. "But then you're just not a VPA member. It’s fairly simple. That's really all we're gonna really say about it."

The "rules" to which Nichols referred are the VPA's so-called "Best Practices for Schools Regarding Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students." Those "best practices" demand that Christian schools jettison their religious beliefs and instead allow supposedly "transgender and gender nonconforming students ... to participate in physical education and sports in accordance with the student’s gender identity."

However, MVCS Head of School Vicky Fogg adamantly defended the decision to withdraw the girls' basketball team from the playoff game rather than subject the girls to a male competitor, calling it a matter of "safety" and "fairness."

"We withdrew from the tournament because we believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players," Fogg wrote to Fox News Digital in late February. "Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general."

Though that forfeiture cost the girls' basketball team a chance at a state title, the MVCS boys' team participated in their tournament and performed quite well, falling just short in the state championship game against Rivendell Academy, 49-41. Should the VPA's ban continue, the boys' team will not be able to avenge their loss next year — or any year after that.

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