Vermont moves in with a family for a biologically male trans student

A Vermont The school district punished a father and his daughter for speaking out against a biological male in the girls’ locker room. Now, The Daily Signal has learned, the district has settled with the Allen family in what its legal team is hailing as a “resounding victory.”

That settlement requires the Vermont School Boards Insurance Trust to pay $125,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees and costs to Travis Allen and Jessica Allen, on behalf of their daughter, Blake Allenand their lawyers with the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Under the settlement, the district will reinstate Travis Allen, the father, as the high school’s football coach and expunge the school’s records against Travis Allen and daughter Blake.

In addition, the settlement requires the Orange Southwest School District Board and school officials named in the Allens’ lawsuit to remove any content posted online by the school related to the locker room business, as well as from the bulletin board. Randolph Union Middle/High announcements or boards. School shows messages of “love and support” to trans-identifying student.

The Alliance Defending Freedom hailed the settlement as a major victory for the Allen family.

“The settlement in the Blake and Travis Allen case is a resounding victory for free speech,” Phil Sechler, senior attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Daily Signal on Thursday.

“Pushing a man on a man shouldn’t have cost Travis his job and gotten Blake kicked out of school,” he added. “We are very pleased that the school has agreed to do the right thing by returning Travis to his coaching job and dropping the discipline against Blake. Everyone has the right to speak freely, and we appreciate that this settlement further protects that right.”

In their lawsuit filed in October, the Allens said they were “punished for expressing their views on a matter of deep public concern: whether a teenage male who ‘identifies’ as female should be able to change in the girls’ locker room, regardless of how uncomfortable the girls in that room are.”

“In objecting to having a man in the room while the girls change, Travis and Blake made comments emphasizing that the trans-identifying student is in fact a man, even through the use of of male pronouns,” said the lawsuit, which was detailed. first obtained by The Daily Signal. “Indeed, his view of student masculinity was central to his views on the appropriate use of the locker room.”

“However, his comments were too much for the transgender orthodoxy of the defendants: Travis was deemed to have ‘spoiled’ the student, while Blake was found guilty of ‘harassment’ and ‘bullying’ , so the defendants disciplined them both.”

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Superintendent Layne Millington, co-principals Lisa Floyd and Caty Sutton and the Orange Southwest School District Board are state actors and are “violating the First Amendment” by trying to dictate “what can be said about matters of public interest,” said the demand noting that those school district officials also cannot discriminate against speech based on their viewpoint.

“However, that is exactly what happened here,” the filing said. “The defendants punished Travis and Blake for saying that a man is a man, as a matter of sex and biology, regardless of the gender identity the man has assumed.”

The daily signal reported for the first time that Travis Allen had been suspended without pay from his job as Randolph Union Middle School girls soccer coach for calling the trans student male. His suspension followed a Daily Signal video and report highlighting Blake’s discomfort with a biological male using his dressing room while changing. Jessica Allen also spoke out in the video.

Several of Blake’s fellow students who spoke to The Daily Signal said they asked the student to leave, but said the student did not immediately. The girls said that the student stood in the corner and watched them while they changed, making them feel uncomfortable.

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