Christian teacher sues Georgia school district over cut program

Pastor and Christian educator Gady Youmans last week sued the Vidalia, Ga., school board and superintendent after they canceled public schools’ participation in his Bible, finance, and religion classes. Attorneys for Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal group representing Youmans in court, argued in the federal lawsuit that the circumstances of the cancellation violated his First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion.

What’s the background of the case? Youmans’ classes were part of a local high school’s released-time program, under which students could opt to take the off-campus classes for free during school hours. He taught about 20 students each semester, according to court documents. The Vidalia school superintendent and board canceled Youmans’ participation in the released-time program in February, allegedly citing social media posts from 2025 as a basis for the decision. In the posts, Youmans criticized a tax increase meant to increase school funding and stated that some students told him that their other teachers weren’t really educating them, according to court documents. The posts upset Vidalia High School teachers and parents, administrators said.

The school officials also said that they made the decision after learning that some parents previously pulled children from his classes due to disagreements with the material. Youmans argued that only one child had ever been withdrawn, and that the child’s parents did so because he did not exclusively use the King James Version of the Bible, according to court documents.

What do we know about the school officials’ perspective? The superintendent said the school would replace Youmans’ classes with an option for students to take dual-enrollment classes at Brewton-Parker Christian University, according to court documents. Some of Youmans’ classes were also eligible for dual enrollment at the university, according to his website. The superintendent told WORLD that she would respond through the appropriate legal process but would not provide further comment.

Dig deeper: Read Liz Lykins’ report on another Alliance Defending Freedom case involving a Christian youth ministry.