School district kicks out Christian student ministry because founder opposes tax increase: lawsuit

Student ministries that provide "released-time" Bible instruction during public school hours and opponents of tax increases have separately clashed with school districts over their constitutional rights to equal treatment with secular groups and free speech, respectively.

The Rev. Gady Youmans endured a double whammy when Georgia's Vidalia City Schools retaliated against his Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center for Youmans' Facebook posts criticizing the school board's proposal to raise property taxes in light of its top-heavy administrative structure, a new lawsuit alleges.

Superintendent Sandy Reid explicitly told Youmans that she and the board were ending Vidalia High School's 11-year relationship with Sweet Onion because of his posts on the "tax issue," but when Youmans protested, Reid also vaguely referred to parents who pulled their children from his program because of how it was taught, according to the suit.

Youmans later learned Reid gave the board a report with the same allegations at a "work session" three months earlier, summarized in the session minutes. 

Without mentioning taxes or Youmans' specific complaints, Reid shared a "recurring concern" about Youmans for publicly expressing "criticism of public schools" and "negative comments about the district and staff on social media."

She also cited parental concerns about Sweet Onion, "specifically a perception that some instruction reflected a particular interpretation of the Bible rather than presenting information in a neutral or well-balanced manner," the minutes state.

This could only refer to one instance in Sweet Onion's history, according to Youmans: a parent who pulled a child because the religious instruction did not "exclusively" use a King James Bible, in a different high school where Sweet Onion had ended its program years earlier for logistical reasons, not parental complaints.

The lawsuit, filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom, alleges First Amendment content and viewpoint discrimination, retaliation, compelled speech and violation of free exercise, 14th Amendment vagueness and procedural due process violations, "unconstitutional conditions" on a government benefit and state Religious Freedom Restoration Act violations.

The district cannot punish Youmans or his ministry for criticizing the government and "simply sharing his opinion of a proposed tax hike," ADF legal counsel Mercer Martin said.

Neither Reid nor school board members, named defendants in their official capacities, answered Just the News queries. Reid, whose name is misspelled in her signature, is also sued in her personal capacity.

'We have to teach ourselves in several classes'

Founded in 2013 and operating at Vidalia High School since 2014 at the invitation of its principal, Youmans' ministry is relatively small. The Southern Baptist ordained minister serves as executive director and lead teacher of Sweet Onion, which has a second teacher and a three-member board.

LifeWise Academy, by contrast, covers 36 states, nearly 1,100 schools and nearly 100,000 students as of December 2025, and a survey it commissioned found that two-thirds of Americans support release-time religious instruction with parental consent and no taxpayer funding.

A federal judge nominated by President Biden blocked a Washington state school district's viewpoint discrimination against LifeWise last month, letting the ministry participate in "community resource fairs" and display flyers on the same terms as religious groups, including a boy praying, and letting parents give semester-long consent for participation.

A California mother is planning litigation against her suburban Los Angeles school district for repeatedly censoring her in board meetings for criticizing its decisions, most recently muting her on Zoom for promising to campaign against a new property tax.

Youmans also spoke against a tax increase proposed by the Vidalia City Schools board last September, in two Facebook posts the same day with less than 60 views combined.

The first claimed that "teacher friends" told Youmans the district kept hiring pricey but superfluous administrators, and the second posted a salary chart of the most expensive employees.

In a comment on the second post that got him in trouble with Reid, Youmans told a commenter who was also critical of the district that Youmans' students told him, "We have to teach ourselves in several classes." 

He wasn't trying to "denigrate any teacher" but "vent his frustration" with a tax increase that would "exacerbate bureaucratic requirements," the suit says.

Ministry's future threatened, founder 'humiliated'

Reid emailed Youmans on Feb. 5 saying the district was cutting off Sweet Onion so it could "move in a different direction." 

They met two weeks later at Youmans' request, where Reid said the school would instead offer dual-enrollment credit courses through the Christian university that already partnered with Sweet Onion on some of its courses. Students would now have to pay tuition and travel expenses to get to the university, or take online courses, the suit says. 

Reid said several staff and families had complained to the board about Youmans' Facebook comments about teachers – staff in particular were "highly offended" – and flooded Reid with screenshots of his tax-related posts, especially the comment in which he quoted students, the suit says. The community felt he was "attacking" the high school.

Reid and a committee whose members she didn't identify started researching alternatives to Sweet Onion in October 2025, at the board's request, she allegedly said.

The superintendent only claimed there were "multiple reasons" for cutting off Sweet Onion after Youmans pressed her to "explain how his Facebook posts justified her decision," but only cited parents allegedly leaving the program because they had difficulty "accepting some things," refusing Youmans' request to be more specific, the suit says.

"Neither the Board nor Superintendent Reid provided Rev. Youmans or the Center any notice that the Board was considering rescinding Rev. Youmans’ and the Center’s permission to provide released-time education to Vidalia High students," according to the suit. 

Youmans knows of no one punished by the district for publicly supporting higher taxes.

Canceling the arrangement has put a cloud over Youmans' ministry, which is solely funded by private donations, and threatened his ability to provide for his family of five, the suit says. "By losing the ability to pursue their mission because of their speech, Rev. Youmans and the Center have been humiliated, and their reputation in the community has been tarnished."

He's seeking an injunction against the district that would require it to let Sweet Onion continue providing the same religious instruction, without limiting its activities "in any way" based on his or his organization's "expression or religious exercise," and purge any records that document its decision to cut off Sweet Onion.

Youmans seeks nominal damages, but not compensatory or punitive damages, for violation of his First and 14th amendment rights.