A federal court in Statesboro 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…
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