VIDALIA, Ga. — A Christian learning center in Vidalia has filed a federal lawsuit against Vidalia City Schools, alleging the district ended its relationship with the ministry after its director criticized a proposed tax increase on his personal Facebook page.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed the lawsuit May 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, Statesboro Division, on behalf of Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center and Gady Youmans, the center’s executive director and lead pastor of Word of Life Baptist Church in Vidalia.
Youmans is a Vidalia native and Toombs County High School graduate who earned degrees in Christian studies and psychology from Brewton-Parker College. He later earned master’s degrees in Christian education and biblical counseling, as well as a Doctor of Educational Ministry, from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The lawsuit claims Vidalia City Schools violated Youmans’ First Amendment rights by canceling the center’s released-time education program for Vidalia High School students because of his public comments about the district’s proposed property tax increase and because of the religious perspective of his instruction.
Released-time education programs allow public school students, with parental permission, to leave campus during the school day for religious instruction. According to ADF, Sweet Onion’s program was voluntary and received no public funding.
“For more than a decade, Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center provided optional, free, off-campus religious instruction to students at Vidalia High School,” ADF said in a release announcing the lawsuit.
According to ADF, Vidalia High School’s principal invited Youmans in 2014 to submit a proposal for the center to serve students. The Vidalia City Board of Education approved the program in December 2014, and Sweet Onion began offering classes the following spring.
From spring 2015 through the 2025-26 school year, ADF said, the center served about 20 Vidalia High students each semester.
Courses offered through the center included Biblical Finances, surveys of the Old and New Testaments, Biblical Psychology, and Comparative Religions. The Biblical Finances course used Dave Ramsey’s high school financial literacy curriculum, according to the center, while the Bible and worldview courses combined academic instruction with biblical study and discipleship. The center said its courses were taught from an evangelical Christian perspective and were open to students of all backgrounds.
The dispute began after Vidalia City Schools announced plans in September 2025 to raise property taxes. Youmans opposed the increase on his personal Facebook page. In one post, according to ADF, he urged the school board to address its budget shortfall by cutting unnecessary administrative positions rather than raising taxes.
ADF said Youmans’ comments were made as a private citizen and reflected his views on government spending.
After learning about the posts, ADF said, 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 Bible translation.
According to ADF, the superintendent 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.”
In February 2026, Superintendent Sandy Reid emailed Youmans to inform him that the district was ending its relationship with the center, according to ADF. The organization said Reid later told Youmans that school staff had been offended by his Facebook posts and that the board believed the posts created a “misalignment” that made the district unwilling to continue the partnership.
ADF also said Reid acknowledged that a district teacher who made the same posts would not have been fired but would have received remediation and due process.
ADF argues that the First Amendment protects both Youmans’ right to criticize government action and his right to teach the Bible from his religious convictions.
“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. “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 are urging the court to reinstate Sweet Onion’s released-time program and restore Rev. Youmans’ constitutional freedoms.”
ADF contends that the district’s decision has harmed the ministry and the students it served. Without access to Vidalia High students through the released-time program, ADF said, the center could lose donor support and may have to close. The organization also said students who want religious instruction now face an alternative that requires tuition and travel from the school.
Youmans and Sweet Onion are asking the court to reinstate the program and protect Youmans’ constitutional rights.
The case is Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center v. Vidalia City Schools.
This article originally appeared in the Christian Index.
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