WHO: Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys
WHAT: Available for media interviews following hearing in Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center v. Vidalia City Schools
WHEN: Immediately following hearing, which begins at 9 a.m. EDT, Thursday, July 30
WHERE: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, 52 N. Main St., Statesboro, Georgia. To schedule an interview, contact ADF Media Relations Manager Jacqueline Ribeiro at (202) 961-9396.
STATESBORO, Ga. – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a Christian education program and its director will be available for media interviews Thursday following a hearing before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia in Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center v. Vidalia City Schools.
ADF attorneys filed suit in May against school district officials after they punished Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center and its executive director, Rev. Gady 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 will argue before the court on Youmans’ behalf. “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.”
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 her 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 explain 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.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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