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(LifeSiteNews) — A Christian high school withdrew from a state basketball tournament rather than face a team with a transgender player.

The Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles (MVCS) girls basketball team pulled out of the Vermont Division IV state tournament on February 21 after learning that their opponents’ team would include a biological male. The head of the school, Vicky Fogg, said in a statement regarding the decision to forfeit that including men in women’s sports was a bad sign for the future of women’s sports.

“We believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players,” Fogg said. “Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general.”

MVCS, founded in 1987, provides a biblically based education to students who range from kindergarten to Grade 12. The mission statement clearly encapsulates their desire to promote truth and abide by Christian principles.

“The mission of the school is to glorify God by preparing students for college and for life through a program of academic excellence established in Biblical truth,” the school’s website reads.

“We are desirous, therefore, that Christian Education be in complete accordance with the teachings of Scripture and that children will acquire God’s perspective on life and the circumstances, situations, views, philosophies, mores, moralities, histories, etc. of society and the world at large.”

The school also strongly emphasizes the importance of parents as the primary educators of their children.

“We believe that the primary responsibility for the education of children lies with the parents and that the school should be an extension of the Christian home,” they state. “In every way the school should serve to underscore, continue and augment the teachings of the home. This necessitates an active role on the part of the parents in the school.”

Under Vermont law, biological males are allowed to take part in and play on female sports teams, with a guidance document put out by the Vermont Agency of Education stating that “transgender and gender nonconforming students are to be provided the same opportunities to participate in physical education as are all other students.”

The document adds that “generally, students should be permitted to participate in physical education and sports in accordance with the student’s gender identity,” and that “participation in competitive athletic activities and sports will be resolved on a case-by-case basis.”

Vermont has already experienced significant controversy over biological males invading female spaces when the girls volleyball team at Randolph Union High School was banned from their own locker room in September 2022 when it complained about having to share a space with a biological male claiming to be female who was making inappropriate comments to them.

Read: Girls at Vermont school banned from changeroom for objecting to presence of ‘transgender’ male student

In October, another school in Vermont suspended a coach without pay after he refused to call a trans student by preferred pronouns.

MVCS has previously stood up against this prevalent ideology, including when they filed a request to the Agency of Education for public tuition.

“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,” Fogg wrote in the Jan. 5 letter.

“By signing this form, the Mid Vermont Christian School does not waive any such rights … including on marriage and sexuality,” the school stated. “[T]he school has not included that language in its handbook or online, nor can it affirm that particular aspect of the Vermont Public Accommodations Act.”

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