A Christian school in Vermont has officially forfeited a basketball playoff game Tuesday to avoid competing against a team that allows a transgender girl to play against natural-born females and cited fairness and safety as the reason for the decision.
While the state of Vermont does allow boys who claim to be girls to participate in girls’ sports, the Mid Vermont Christian School in White River Junction decided to forfeit its game in the Division IV state tournament to avoid playing Long Trail, according to Valley News.
The school withdrew from the tournament, saying that allowing a boy to play as a girl “jeopardizes” the safety of female athletes.
“We believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players,” school chief Vicky Fogg wrote in an email to the Valley News. “Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general.”
Lauren Thomas, the assistant executive director for the Vermont Principals’ Association, admitted that she received several communique from various schools during the year regarding the boy playing on the Long Trail team.
“I have received calls (from schools) asking for best practices and how to go forward knowing they were going to play a team with a transgender female on it,” Thomas told the paper. But she admitted that they ignored the questions and simply reiterated their official statement on the topic. “We just supported our stance and our best practices through our inclusivity statement,” she said.
During the last school year, the Christian school sent a letter to state officials stating that it could not comply with all the extreme, left-wing requirements in state law and remain true to its religious beliefs.
“As a religious organization, the school has a statutory and constitutional right to make decisions based on its religious beliefs, including hiring and disciplining employees, associating with others, and in its admissions, conduct and operations policies and procedures,” head of school Fogg wrote.
“By signing this form, the Mid Vermont Christian School does not waive any such rights,” she wrote.
Fogg added that some of the state’s rules conflict with the school’s religious tenets, “including on marriage and sexuality,” and therefore, “the school has not included that language in its handbook or online, nor can it affirm that particular aspect of the Vermont Public Accommodations Act.”
In a recent op-ed published by the Vermont Daily Chronicle, fitness expert Aaron Warner pointed out that the boy claiming to be a girl on the Long Trail team is fast, strong, and even taller than all the girls both on his own team and most of the teams his school plays.
The boy has also earned the nickname “Not in This House” because he has been able to block so many basket attempts by his opponents. In one game alone this year, he blocked seven shots by the girls on other teams.
Warner believes the transgender player is Long Trail’s, Rose Johnson.
“In one game, he had seven blocked shots. That means seven shots, typically closer to the basket, so much more likely to go in, were blocked by the guy who is taller than every other girl on the floor, can jump higher, and likely is significantly stronger,” Warner wrote. “In what world is this even remotely fair to other Vermont Division IV girls?”
