Suspended Vermont Student and Coach Father Sue School District for Retaliating After Complaint About Biological Male in Girls Locker Room

A Vermont high school volleyball player who was suspended from school and her father, the team’s coach, who was suspended from his job, are suing the school district for retaliating against them following their complaint about the policy that allows biological males in the girls’ team locker room.

Blake Allen, 14, a student at Randolph Union Middle School, and her father, Travis Allen, who coaches his daughter’s volleyball team, spoke out against a biological male, claiming to be female, being allowed in the girls’ team locker room while they were changing. Now, the family is suing the school district after Blake was suspended and Travis was fired from his job, asserting the district retaliated against them, the Daily Signal reported Thursday.

The federal lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court District of Vermont by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), on behalf of the Allen family, names Layne Millington, superintendent of Orange Southwest School District (OSSD), Lisa Floyd and Caty Sutton, co-principals of Randolph Union High School, and the OSSD School Board as defendants.

Travis Allen and his daughter Blake “were punished for expressing their views on a matter of profound public concern: whether a teenage male who identifies as female should be permitted to change in a girls’ locker room regardless of the discomfort experienced by girls in that room,” the complaint states, and adds:

In objecting to a male being in the room while the girls are changing, Travis and Blake each made comments underscoring that the trans-identifying student is in fact a male, including by using male pronouns. Indeed, their view of the student’s maleness was foundational to their opinions on appropriate use of the locker room. Yet, their remarks were too much for Defendants’ transgender orthodoxy – Travis was deemed to have “misgendered” the student, while Blake was found guilty of “harassment” and “bullying” – so Defendants disciplined both of them…. (Excerpt from The Star News Network)