Today’s blacklisted American: U.S. Court rules against coach fired for simply stating a fact in a casual conversation
Vermont: Where the only speech allowed must
support the queer agenda
If you are depending on the federal courts to defend your fundamental rights, as outlined very bluntly in the Bill of Rights, you are being very naive. On December 28, 2024 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled against David Bloch, who had been fired in February 2023 without due process as the snowboarding coach at Woodstock Union High School in Vermont — a team that he had founded in 2011 — because he had simply mentioned in a casual and very civil conversation with two of his students that men and women are genetically different.
He was fired the next day, even though no investigation into the incident had been done, and no one involved in the conversation had complained. School officials made it clear that Bloch was being fired for daring to have an opinion they did not like.
The notice accused Bloch of violating Windsor Central Supervisory Union Board’s Harassment, Hazing, and Bullying policy and the Vermont Principals’ Association related policy for “ma[king] reference to [a] student in a manner that questioned the legitimacy and appropriateness of the student competing on the girls’ team to members of the WUHS snowboard team”—all outside the student’s presence.
Bloch sued, noting that the board’s policy was so broad as to violate the first and fourteenth amendments to the Constitution, in numerous ways. And to any ordinary American that interpretation seems so obvious as to make the school’s action utterly unconscionable.
None of that mattered to the 2nd Circuit Court of the U.S. Court of Appeals. On December 28, 2023 it ruled [pdf] that Bloch’s rights under the first and fourtheenth amendments were not violated, that the school was within its rights to fire anyone for having bad opinions, based on any complaints by anyone.
If you read the court ruling you will find it spends a lot of time analyzing a lot of the details of the case, as if the judges were going out of their way to avoid the obvious fact that Bloch had not harassed anyone in any way. He had simply stated that men and women are genetically different, a fact that because it offended one student and goes against the modern queer agenda that has no founding in reality, the school had the right to fire him.
In other words, in Vermont schools you are not allowed to disagree with the queer agenda, in any way. Free speech is forbidden, even when your speech is not an opinion but a blunt fact. And the federal court agrees with this position.
Bloch and his attorneys at the pro-bono free speeach legal firm, the Alliance Defending Freedom, are appealing this ruling [pdf]. I hope they win in a higher court, but the lesson we must all take from this case is that our rights under the Bill of Rights will not be reliably defended by the courts. In fact, we are all faced with the reality that we no longer have those rights under law, and must thus take harsher actions to defend them.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Vermont: Where the only speech allowed must
support the queer agenda
If you are depending on the federal courts to defend your fundamental rights, as outlined very bluntly in the Bill of Rights, you are being very naive. On December 28, 2024 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled against David Bloch, who had been fired in February 2023 without due process as the snowboarding coach at Woodstock Union High School in Vermont — a team that he had founded in 2011 — because he had simply mentioned in a casual and very civil conversation with two of his students that men and women are genetically different.
He was fired the next day, even though no investigation into the incident had been done, and no one involved in the conversation had complained. School officials made it clear that Bloch was being fired for daring to have an opinion they did not like.
The notice accused Bloch of violating Windsor Central Supervisory Union Board’s Harassment, Hazing, and Bullying policy and the Vermont Principals’ Association related policy for “ma[king] reference to [a] student in a manner that questioned the legitimacy and appropriateness of the student competing on the girls’ team to members of the WUHS snowboard team”—all outside the student’s presence.
Bloch sued, noting that the board’s policy was so broad as to violate the first and fourteenth amendments to the Constitution, in numerous ways. And to any ordinary American that interpretation seems so obvious as to make the school’s action utterly unconscionable.
None of that mattered to the 2nd Circuit Court of the U.S. Court of Appeals. On December 28, 2023 it ruled [pdf] that Bloch’s rights under the first and fourtheenth amendments were not violated, that the school was within its rights to fire anyone for having bad opinions, based on any complaints by anyone.
If you read the court ruling you will find it spends a lot of time analyzing a lot of the details of the case, as if the judges were going out of their way to avoid the obvious fact that Bloch had not harassed anyone in any way. He had simply stated that men and women are genetically different, a fact that because it offended one student and goes against the modern queer agenda that has no founding in reality, the school had the right to fire him.
In other words, in Vermont schools you are not allowed to disagree with the queer agenda, in any way. Free speech is forbidden, even when your speech is not an opinion but a blunt fact. And the federal court agrees with this position.
Bloch and his attorneys at the pro-bono free speeach legal firm, the Alliance Defending Freedom, are appealing this ruling [pdf]. I hope they win in a higher court, but the lesson we must all take from this case is that our rights under the Bill of Rights will not be reliably defended by the courts. In fact, we are all faced with the reality that we no longer have those rights under law, and must thus take harsher actions to defend them.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
We live in a world where wrong is nice and right is mean.
I am beyond baffled by all of this.
“William Shatner Slams European Union Gender Equality Proposal to Ban Star Trek’s Iconic, “To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before””
“Montana’s Child Protective Services has been accused of forcibly transporting a 14-year-old girl from her family in Montana to Wyoming for gender transition treatment, leading to a complete revocation of her parents’ custody.”
“American Museum of Natural History Closes Certain Displays Amid New Federal Regulations”
Its “Fundamental”.
You must raze what is in order to rebuild anew.
They will not win on appeal, he has no case, read the court decision.
He was a coach and he was talking smack about a student, and he thinks it shouldn’t count against him because it was a student from a different school. He clearly violated his own school’s policies, and admitted as much. Seems he believes he should not be held accountable for anything by anyone.
Nice lack of ethics there coach!
Gary M.:
I have for some years advocated a ‘polite but not nice’ approach. I will tell you to go to [some place] with a smile on my face, but if you have intent toward me and mine, I have no obligation whatsoever to be nice. Indeed, my obligation is to remove harmful influences from my life.
Here’s the thing. Outside of whatever physical defense you can mount, other than their moral compass, there is absolutely nothing that prevents someone from ending you. Sure, the State may enforce, but the deed has been done. All the enforcement in the world won’t bring you back. To remove morality from public life, as the Progressives have done, is to remove the rule of law. Rule-of-law is replaced by strongest-prevail. It is the refutation of thousands of years of Human social progress. These lessons used to be learned on the playground, but have not been taught for decades. We reap the harvest.
A judge has one reason to exist. “Is the law as applied Constitutional?” But not those judges. Not any judges who are deranged, psychotic, or delusional – Just like anyone else in the society. The courts will not save us, those people are on the highest courts already.
There are genetic differences between a man and a woman.
Sure, Bosco. So long as you accept the argument that referring to someone as really being their sex is ‘disparaging.’ Because that’s what it hinges on, that the coach ‘disparaged’ a male student as being really a male.
That said, our host didn’t link to a decision on the case; the decision was about a preliminary injunction to get the coach his position back before the suit is heard and a number of motions to dismiss his suit. The injunction was denied, and aspects of the case dismissed, but the case as a whole is not yet decided.
It’s worth noting that the appeal the ADF is making on his behalf is an appeal on that same preliminary injunction. The trial itself isn’t scheduled to start until 12 August.
“Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
-G. Orwell
This appears to be out of context.
I would like to hear what the subject matter was referring to. But either way, this is political loony toons territory. Just another herd distraction.
Given that he is a coach, it may have been regarding male vs female sports and people finding ways of cheating.
No way should a man claim to be a female to then compete as a female in female sporting events, blatant cheating.
When I was a kid (long ago granted), if you had a penis you were a boy, if you didn’t then you were a girl. It was that simple. Men can’t give birth or create eggs, women can’t produce semen. I thought that mystery was figured out millennia ago, what did I miss in bio class ?
Makes me wonder how much modern brainwashing, dubious big pharma public drug testing abuse and food contaminated with harmful plastics has to do with this bizarre new situation we are now bombarded with. Or is it just another psy op to confuse the herd ?
It does feel like we are going through another 1960’s psy op event these days.