Sunny Side of The Stream: Snowboarding Coach, Fired for Saying Men and Women Are Different, Wins Settlement
In a win for free speech and religious liberty, state and school officials have agreed to pay a wrongfully fired snowboarding coach a $75,000 settlement — nearly 17 times his annual salary from the school.
David Bloch was a snowboarding coach at Vermont’s Woodstock Union High School for 12 years — until he was fired for saying out loud that males and females are biologically different. Cue a lawsuit.
The school district said Bloch violated its Harassment, Hazing, and Bullying policy, which is required under state law. Now the district and the state’s Agency of Education admit Bloch didn’t violate the policy.
In a video produced by Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal advocacy group representing Bloch, he explains what happened: During down time at a snowboarding competition, two students were sitting at a table discussing the fact that a male student who identifies as female was competing on the girls’ team. One of the students at the table, a male, said he thought students should compete according to their sex, not their gender identity. The other student, a female, accused him of being transphobic.
Bloch joined the conversation to express his view that though people may express themselves differently, what matters most for sports is that biological sex is the basis of significant physical differences. The conversation lasted less than three minutes and was respectful. The female student thanked Bloch for a good conversation.
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The next day, Bloch learned the school district had fired him over the matter and barred him from ever being hired again.
Bloch is a practicing Roman 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. He also believes that sex is determined at the cellular level, not by how a person feels.
Bloch started the school’s snowboarding program as a volunteer in addition to his full-time job over a decade ago, knowing that’s what it would take to get the program off the ground. Under his leadership, at least three snowboarders have won state competitions.
Aliya Kuykendall is a staff writer and proofreader for The Stream. You can follow her on X @AliyaKuykendall and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.
