The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia ruled Thursday that a Georgia school district must reinstate a Christian released-time education program and uphold its executive director’s freedom of speech while their lawsuit against school officials continues.
In the case Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center v. Vidalia City Schools, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center and its executive director, Rev. Gady Youmans. ADF attorneys filed suit in May against school district officials after they punished Youmans for exercising his First Amendment freedom of speech on Facebook.
For more than a decade, Sweet Onion provided optional, free, off-campus religious instruction to students at Vidalia High School. The program continued without problems until Youmans criticized an unrelated proposed tax increase on his Facebook page, and the school district retaliated by canceling the released-time program.
“Every American has the right to publicly criticize the government—that’s what makes the First Amendment guarantee of free speech so special and the envy of the world,” said ADF Legal Counsel Mercer Martin, who argued before the court on Youmans’ behalf Thursday. “Vidalia City Schools can’t punish Rev. Youmans—or his ministry providing high school students with free religious education—for simply sharing his opinion of a proposed tax hike. We’re pleased the court has reinstated Sweet Onion’s released-time program and restored Rev. Youmans’ constitutionally protected freedoms while his lawsuit proceeds.”
After learning about Youmans’ Facebook posts, the superintendent secretly investigated Sweet Onion and learned that, six years ago, a parent from another school had removed her child from a Sweet Onion course after learning the ministry did not exclusively use the parent’s preferred version of the Bible. Based on this incident, the superintendent reported to the board that, in addition to disagreement with the content of Youmans’ Facebook posts, his instruction “reflected a particular interpretation of the Bible” that wasn’t presented in a “neutral or well-balanced manner.” By targeting his religious instruction, the district violated Youmans’ right to the free exercise of religion.
ADF attorneys explained that the First Amendment protects Youmans’ right both to criticize the proposed tax increase and to teach the Bible from his religious perspective. By punishing him and his ministry for his criticism of the government and his religious instruction, school officials violated that fundamental right.