STATESBORO, Ga. — A federal court has ruled that Vidalia City Schools must reinstate a Christian released-time education program while a lawsuit against the district continues, according to Alliance Defending Freedom.
The ruling, issued July 30 by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, came in the case Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center v. Vidalia City Schools. ADF attorneys represent Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center and Gady Youmans, the center’s executive director and lead pastor of Word of Life Baptist Church in Vidalia.
ADF filed the lawsuit in May, alleging Vidalia City Schools ended its relationship with Sweet Onion after Youmans criticized a proposed property tax increase on his personal Facebook page.
For more than a decade, Sweet Onion provided optional, free, off-campus religious instruction to students at Vidalia High School. Released-time education programs allow public school students, with parental permission, to leave campus during the school day for religious instruction.
ADF said the program operated without problems until Youmans posted criticism of the proposed tax increase. The organization said the district then canceled the released-time program, violating Youmans’ First Amendment rights.
“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.”
According to ADF, after learning about Youmans’ Facebook posts, the superintendent investigated Sweet Onion and found that six years earlier, 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.
ADF said the superintendent later reported to the board that, in addition to concerns about Youmans’ Facebook posts, his instruction “reflected a particular interpretation of the Bible” that was not presented in a “neutral or well-balanced manner.”
ADF argues that the First Amendment protects both Youmans’ right to criticize the proposed tax increase and his right to teach the Bible from his religious perspective.
The court’s ruling requires the district to reinstate the program while the lawsuit proceeds, according to ADF.
The case is Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center v. Vidalia City Schools.
This article originally appeared in the Christian Index.
