Christian Coach Fired for Stating Obvious Truth About Trans Athletes Sues School
A Christian high school coach is suing the Vermont school district that fired him after he spoke to several students about the competitive advantage that male athletes claiming to be female have over female athletes, he alleges in his lawsuit.
David Bloch, who has been a coach for the snowboarding team and an employee at Woodstock Union High School for more than a decade, filed his lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont.
The coach alleges he was fired after he engaged in a Feb. 8 discussion with several students about a transgender snowboarder competing against girls at another school.
“Bloch joined the conversation to comment that people express themselves differently and that there can be masculine women and feminine men,” Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the coach in his lawsuit, said in a news release.
“He also affirmed that as a matter of biology, males and females have different DNA, which causes males to develop differently from females and have different physical characteristics, and that those biological differences give males an advantage in athletic competitions,” ADF said.
Bloch said the transgender student was not present during this conversation and the student’s name wasn’t mentioned.
The coach said he was confronted by Windsor Central Supervisory Union Superintendent Sherry Sousa on Feb. 9 and summarily fired, even as Sousa admitted the investigation into the incident had only just begun.
The superintendent additionally told Bloch that she had barred him from all future coaching positions in the district, Bloch said.
“The notice accused Bloch of violating Windsor Central Supervisory Union Board’s Harassment, Hazing, and Bullying policy and the Vermont Principals’ Association related policy for ‘ma[king] reference to [a] student in a manner that questioned the legitimacy and appropriateness of the student competing on the girls’ team to members of the WUHS snowboard team,'” ADF said in its release.
Bloch Complaint by The Western Journal
Sousa also accused the coach of using “disparaging names” and creating “objectively offensive environment and constituted harassment based on gender identity,” according to the lawsuit.
In his filing, Bloch said he is a practicing Catholic “who believes that God created males and females with immutable sex, and that, based on scientific evidence, there are only two sexes, male and female and that sex is determined by a person’s chromosomes.”
The lawsuit said the firing violates the coach’s First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
It also said Sousa “has a child who identifies as transgender.”
“For more than a decade, Dave has led the Woodstock Union snowboarding program to enormous success in terms of both athletic accomplishment and personal growth of the snowboarders,” ADF legal counsel Mathew Hoffmann said in a statement.
Hoffman said the school district “unconstitutionally fired him” for “merely expressing his views that males and females are biologically different and questioning the appropriateness of a teenage male competing against teenage females in an athletic competition.”
“We urge the court to swiftly rule that officials must reinstate Dave as snowboarding coach and that district and Vermont officials cannot enforce unconstitutional ‘harassment’ policies against public employees,” Hoffman said.
“The First Amendment ensures Dave, and every other American, can freely express his views on a matter of profound public concern without government punishment.” – ADF’s Mathew Hoffmann.
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) July 18, 2023
This is the second major incident of bias against people who spoke out about boys claiming to be girls in Vermont schools this year.
Last month, a middle school volleyball coach and his daughter were awarded $125,000 after the Orange Southwest School District fired him and engaged in a campaign of harassment against his daughter when they expressed their opposition to a boy who claims to be a girl using the girl’s locker rooms.
Clashes between liberal school districts and students and employees who oppose transgenderism are becoming more frequent as the national discussion over the issue continues to rage.
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