A Vermont snowboarding coach fired for violating the school’s policy against “hazing, harassment, and bullying” over his views about transgender athletes has sued to get his job back, accusing school officials of breaching his free-speech rights.
David Bloch, who founded the Woodstock Union High School snowboarding team in 2011, was dismissed the day after he said during a three-minute discussion with two student-athletes on his team that male athletes have a physical advantage over female athletes.
The conversation was spurred by a male-born snowboarder from a competing school who raced against girls based on gender identity. The next day, the superintendent gave Mr. Bloch a notice of “immediate termination” after receiving a complaint.
“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,” said Mathew Hoffman, Alliance Defending Freedom legal counsel, who represents Mr. Bloch.
“But 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, school district officials unconstitutionally fired him,” he said.
Mr. Bloch is a “practicing Catholic who believes God created males and females with immutable sex, and that, based on scientific evidence, there are only two sexes, male and female,” said the alliance.
The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court for Vermont seeks to have Mr. Bloch reinstated and stop the Windsor Central school board, the Vermont Principals Association, and the Vermont Agency of Education from enforcing their anti-harassment policies on the issue of transgender athletes.
“The First Amendment ensures Dave, and every other American, can freely express his views on a matter of profound public concern without government punishment,” Mr. Hoffman said. “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.”
CASE FILED: David Bloch built a high school snowboarding program & coached several state champions over 10+ years. But when he expressed his view that men and women are different, school officials fired him the next day. We’ve sued these Vermont officials in federal court.
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) July 18, 2023
The policy was enacted after the Vermont Legislature passed a law in 2012 requiring school districts to adopt policies against “hazing, harassment, and bullying,” or HHB, that defines harassment as “verbal, written, visual or physical conduct” based on characteristics including “gender identity.”
The notice of termination said that Mr. Bloch violated the policy by making “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.”
“I find that your use of disparaging names created an objectively offensive environment and constituted harassment based on gender identity, justifying terminating your contract as a snowboarding coach,” said Superintendent Sherry Sousa in the Feb. 9 letter. “In addition, you will not be considered for any future coaching positions within the Windsor Central Unified Union School District.”
Ms. Sousa met with Mr. Bloch the same day and told him that the investigation was not complete. The district has not given him a copy of the completed investigation despite his requests.
The complaint also suggested that Ms. Sousa may be biased.
“Defendant Sousa remained visibly angry throughout the meeting with Coach Bloch,” said the lawsuit. “Upon information and belief, Defendant Sousa has a child who identifies as transgender.”
The Washington Times has reached out to the district and Vermont Agency of Education for comment.
Mr. Bloch’s conversation with two students occurred during a break at a Feb. 8 snowboarding meet, but the transgender snowboarder was not present and the coach did not refer to the athlete by name, the complaint said.
“Coach Bloch discussed that different physical characteristics generally give males competitive advantages in athletic competitions,” said the complaint. “At no point in the conversation did Coach Bloch refer to the transgender-identifying snowboarder. The conversation was respectful among all three parties.”
One of the two students disagreed with him, but nonetheless thanked him for a “good conversation,” said the motion.
Mr. Bloch was paid $4,439 for his work as head snowboarding coach during the 2022-23 academic year.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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