A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered Vermont’s school sports league to allow a Christian academy to compete, more than two years after the school forfeited a basketball game rather than play a team with a transgender athlete.

The court found that the Vermont Principals’ Association, which governs middle and high school sports in the state, likely violated the First Amendment rights of Mid Vermont Christian School when it expelled the institution over the forfeiture in 2023. At the time, the league “displayed hostility toward the school’s religious beliefs,” impinging on its free exercise of religion, the court wrote Tuesday.

The preliminary decision, by the New York-based US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, reverses an earlier one by a federal district judge in Vermont. It allows Mid Vermont, a K-12 private school in the Upper Valley village of Quechee, to compete for the time being while an underlying lawsuit wends its way through the courts. The school and the families of two students sued the principals’ association and other state and local entities in November 2023, alleging religious discrimination.

The Vermont case is one of many around the country testing the constitutionality of state laws and school policies governing transgender athletes’ participation in sports. The US Supreme Court plans this fall to review bans on transgender athletes enacted in Idaho and West Virginia but blocked by lower courts.

The Vermont dispute stems from a high school basketball tournament in February 2023, when Mid Vermont’s girls’ team was slated to play the Long Trail School, whose roster included a transgender girl. The Christian academy called on the league to prevent the transgender athlete from playing, but the league said doing so would violate its nondiscrimination policies and Vermont law.

The school forfeited the game and withdrew from the tournament, saying in a written statement that “playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players.” Three weeks later, the Vermont Principals’ Association barred the school from participating in sports and other extracurricular activities, including spelling bees and debate competitions.

Mid Vermont later said that playing Long Trail would have violated its belief that “sex is God-given and immutable and that God created each of us either male or female,” but the league argued that playing another team does not involve adopting its views.

“This case has nothing to do with beliefs,” a league committee wrote at the time. “It has everything to do with actions and their impact on transgender students.”

The appeals court, however, found that the league — and its leader, in particular — likely did not apply its policies to Mid Vermont in a neutral manner. It pointed to testimony Vermont Principals’ Association executive director Jay Nichols gave to a state legislative committee shortly after Mid Vermont’s forfeit.

“Thank goodness the student in question didn’t attend that religious school,” Nichols told the committee. “But what if they did? Would we be okay with that blatant discrimination under the guise of religious freedom?”

The three appeals court judges who signed the order reinstating Mid Vermont — all appointed by President Donald Trump or President George W. Bush — took issue with those comments.

“The VPA’s Executive Director publicly castigated Mid Vermont — and religious schools generally — while the VPA rushed to judgment on whether and how to discipline the school,” the court wrote, adding that “the punishment imposed was unprecedented, overbroad and procedurally irregular.”

Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group that brought the case, celebrated the court’s order Tuesday.

“The government cannot punish religious schools — and the families they serve — by permanently kicking them out of state-sponsored sports simply because the state disagrees with their religious beliefs,” said ADF senior counsel David Cortman, who argued the case.

Nichols said in a brief interview Tuesday that the principals’ association would not comment on pending litigation. But he pushed back on the notion that the league’s actions — and his words — were motivated by religious animus, calling himself a Christian.

“There’s nobody at the VPA that has any animosity toward any religion — none of our officers, none of our members or anyone employed by the VPA,” Nichols said.

Over the past decade, the way people connect and build community has shifted in meaningful ways. 

As Joshua Smith watched these changes unfold, he noticed something important: while online platforms offered new opportunities, many people around him still craved real, local connection. Around the same time, the owner of WYKR, his hometown radio station, kept joking, “Josh, if you ever want to buy a radio station, let me know.” In 2023, Josh took him up on it.

Based in Wells River and serving parts of northern Vermont and New Hampshire, WYKR is the oldest country radio station in Vermont. True to its roots, Josh is revitalizing what radio was back in the ’70s and ’80s, featuring outdoor shows and programs, broadcasting the local basketball games, and keeping advertising affordable.

Josh is building something enduring. He took over The Bridge Weekly Showcase, a local paper, soon after buying WYKR. He formed Yankee Kingdom Media to sustain and grow both outlets. Local ownership, he notes, ensures the voices and stories of his community are heard. And it enhances the symbiotic relationship between local businesses. “Keeping local media local and independent? We can’t take it for granted,” he says. 

“I don’t know where I would have ended up.”

When Josh reflects on where he started—a disengaged student from rural Vermont—he’s clear about one thing: “I wouldn’t be here without VSAC believing in me.”

A self-professed theater kid at Blue Mountain Union High School, Josh wasn’t sure about college. His three brothers didn’t go, and although his parents wanted him to continue his education, he knew they couldn’t pay for it. Then, junior year, he began meeting monthly with a VSAC outreach counselor from VSAC’s GEAR UP college and career readiness program.

“My outreach counselor guided me through the entire process and took away any barriers I perceived. She also helped me remove the barriers of funding. She reinforced the fact that education is a right, not a privilege.”

Josh’s VSAC counselor helped him with his applications and financial aid paperwork, and coached him on what to expect in college. “VSAC looked at me and saw the full future version of me. Not my test scores, not my grades. Me,” he says.

Josh’s theater teacher had friends who taught at Webster University in Saint Louis, and they encouraged him to apply. So he did, along with a slate of other schools, all of which he was accepted to. Webster remained his first choice—and he ended up with a financial aid package that made it possible for him to go. 

From art school to international service

Josh originally dreamed of becoming a children’s book illustrator. Over the course of his college years, however, his perspective began to shift. He joined the Peace Corps after college, which changed everything, and high school French classes landed him a position in Niger. 

After being in Niger for two years, Josh renewed his option to stay for another two years. “I lived in a mud hut and pulled my own water from a well. And while there, I read all the books I was supposed to read in high school.” 

Josh’s Peace Corps experience ignited a passion for international service. He went on to earn a master’s in International Education from the School for International Training in Brattleboro and spent the next 12 years working with global humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders and Action Against Hunger. From Pakistan to the Philippines, Libya to Nigeria, Joshua managed the complex logistics of getting food and medical supplies to those in crisis.

“I repaired ambulances in Libya during the revolution and had a machine gun pointed in my face. Along with survival, the logistical challenges of getting food and medical supplies to places during a crisis were mine to solve.”

But even while doing this high-stakes work, he never forgot his roots—or the people who helped get him started. “The key to success is showing up and believing in yourself,” he said. “My self-confidence really came from working with VSAC. They made me feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. When you’re a teenager, there is no self-confidence. When you have someone who believes in your potential more than you do, especially when it’s an adult—that’s powerful.”

“I don’t believe in one career for the rest of your life. I’m on my third.”

After marrying his wife, Edith (whom he met while working in Niger), and moving back to Vermont, Joshua earned an MBA from Norwich University and dove into the nonprofit world. He led an organization supporting people with intellectual disabilities and sat on several local boards before the opportunity to purchase WYKR came about. 

Now 49, at the helm of Yankee Kingdom Media and living in Morrisville with his wife and three children, one of Josh’s greatest joys is hosting a podcast—Vermont Authors and Artists—bringing together his lifelong love of creativity, service, and conversation.

Through it all, he carries forward his commitment to continuous curiosity—something he learned in theater and through the arts and is now passing on to his children.

“I don’t believe in one career for the rest of your life,” he notes. “I’m on my third. Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have seen this career coming.”

The Vermont Student Assistance Corp. was created by the Vermont Legislature in 1965 as a public nonprofit agency. We advocate for Vermont students and their families to ensure that they have the tools they need to achieve their education and training goals. We create opportunities for all Vermont students, but particularly for those—of any age—who believe that the doors to education are closed to them. Growing families save for education with VT529, Vermont’s official 529 savings program. To help Vermonters plan and pay for college or job training, our counselors work with students in nearly every Vermont middle school and high school, and are also available to work with adults. Our grant, scholarship, and workforce development programs create opportunity, help students re-skill or learn new skills, and grow the economy. VSAC’s loan and loan forgiveness programs provide competitive education financing to students and families. Find us at www.vsac.org or visit Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.

A Vermont trucker and husband was nearly permanently blinded after a psycho road rager pulled over and allegedly tried to gouge out his eyes while he was driving home after a long day at work.

Ronnie Bushway, 46, underwent two major eye surgeries in the wake of the shocking attack late last Tuesday.

The alleged assailant, 44-year-old Aaron Williams, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and maiming. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

Williams allegedly drove up in front of Bushway’s vehicle and brake-checked him before storming out of his car.

The enraged driver then came up to Bushway’s side, and allegedly punched him several times in the face before attempting to gouge his eyes, WCAX reported.

Witnesses rushed to help the victim, who was beaten so badly that he couldn’t really “say or talk much” as blood poured out of his nose, one bystander told Local12.

Bushway’s family insists that the attack was entirely random and is trying to do what they can to support him as he works through extensive physical and psychological recovery.

Last week’s surgeries helped him recover some of his eyesight, but doctors expect that he “will have substantial visual impairment for the rest of his life,” his family wrote in a GoFundMe page.

He will require additional surgeries — forcing him away from his job as a tractor-trailer driver, which requires him to have optimal eyesight to operate the heavy machinery.

“I’m lost for words, actually. This is just a bad thing that happened,” Bushway’s father told the outlet.

His father added that the family is trying to find special programs to help him recuperate so he can, hopefully, still retain his job once he recovers.

Bushway’s sister-in-law organized a GoFundMe for the family, pledging to put every penny towards his mounting medical expenses. As of Monday evening, more than 140 people had donated a total of roughly $27,000.

In April, another case of road rage ended in a man’s death. An irate grandpa driving on the Long Island Expressway swerved and purposefully crushed a motorcyclist against the guardrail.

The slain motorcyclist’s family described him as a “gentle spirit” who wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Last week, a Louisiana teenager and expectant mother was shot in the head by a man brake-checking her vehicle. She was rushed to a nearby hospital and delivered her premature baby girl via an emergency C-section.

The mother, 17-year-old Katelynn Strate, is not expected to survive. Her family plans to take her off life support on Tuesday. The newborn, weighing just over 3 pounds, is doing well.