Vermont snowboarding coach files lawsuit after getting fired for sharing views on trans athletes

The previous head coach of a Vermont high school snowboarding staff has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that he was fired earlier this 12 months after he expressed his spiritual beliefs and views on transgender athletes. 

Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit within the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Vermont Monday on behalf of David Bloch, who based the snowboarding team at Woodstock Union Excessive Faculty greater than a decade in the past, after he was terminated for discussing his views on trans athletes. 

A snowboard on the high of a mountain in the course of the downhill occasion on the Lake Louise Audi FIS Ski World Cup on December 2, 2022, on the Lake Louise Ski Resort in Lake Louise, AB.  (Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photos)

The lawsuit alleges that at a contest on February 8, Bloch overheard a dialog between two of his athletes discussing a male snowboarder who recognized as a feminine and was competing in opposition to different organic females. 

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“Coach Bloch joined the dialog to supply that individuals categorical themselves in another way and that there may be masculine ladies and female males,” the grievance learn. “However he affirmed that as a matter of biology, women and men have completely different DNA, which causes males to develop in another way from females and have completely different bodily traits. Coach Bloch mentioned that biological differences typically give males aggressive benefits in athletic occasions.”

The dialog lasted three minutes, and the competitors went off with out incident, the lawsuit said. Each groups even traveled collectively on the identical bus after the competitors ended. 

However the next day, Bloch met with Windsor Central Supervisory Union Superintendent Sherry Sousa, who knowledgeable him that he had been terminated for violating the district’s harassment, hazing, and bullying (HHB) and the Vermont Principals’ Affiliation (VPA) insurance policies after a grievance had been filed. 

Snowboard And Ski In The Snow.  (Common Archive/Common Photos Group through Getty Photos)

The lawsuit claimed that Sousa accused Bloch of utilizing “disparaging names,” which “created an objectively offensive setting and constituted harassment based mostly on gender identification, justifying termination.”

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Sousa additionally allegedly mentioned that Bloch’s firing had been selected earlier than the investigation into the grievance had been full. It additionally famous that Sousa is believed to have a baby who “identifies as transgender.”

The lawsuit said that Bloch, a “practicing Roman Catholic,” was sharing his beliefs in the course of the dialog and was due to this fact “engaged in constitutionally protected exercise.” 

“For greater than a decade, Dave has led the Woodstock Union snowboarding program to monumental success when it comes to each athletic accomplishment and private development of the snowboarders. However for merely expressing his views that women and men are biologically completely different and questioning the appropriateness of a teenage male competing in opposition to teenage females in an athletic competitors, college district officers unconstitutionally fired him,” ADF Authorized Counsel Mathew Hoffmann mentioned in a press release. 

A snowboarder rides down the hill at Hoodoo Ski Space Thursday, March 30, 2023. (Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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“The First Modification ensures Dave, and each different American, can freely categorical his views on a matter of profound public concern with out authorities punishment. We urge the court docket to swiftly rule that officers should reinstate Dave as snowboarding coach and that district and Vermont officers can’t implement unconstitutional ‘harassment’ insurance policies in opposition to public workers.” 

The lawsuit names a number of defendants, together with Sousa and the Windsor Central Supervisory Union Board. Sousa and Woodstock Union Excessive Faculty didn’t return Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.