ACLJ Sends Demand Letter To Defend Homeschooled Firefighter Andrew Coates After Fremont Puts Him at a Disadvantage Yet Again

Andrew Coates wants to be a firefighter. He’s a licensed EMT, has earned recognition as “Rookie Firefighter of the Year,” and has dedicated himself to pursuing a career serving and protecting his community.

But when Andrew applied to become a firefighter in Fremont, Nebraska, the city refused to let him compete for the position.

Why? Because Andrew was homeschooled.

Despite Nebraska law expressly protecting the right of families to homeschool their children, Fremont maintained a discriminatory hiring policy that excluded Andrew from consideration simply because of how he received his education.

It didn’t matter that Andrew was qualified. It didn’t matter that he had already demonstrated his dedication to emergency services. The city shut him out of the hiring process because he was homeschooled.

When the ACLJ learned what had happened, we stepped in to represent and defend Andrew’s rights.

We challenged Fremont’s unconstitutional restriction and demanded that the city stop discriminating against homeschool graduates. And our efforts forced the issue before the Fremont City Council.

Faced with our challenge, the city council finally voted to eliminate the homeschool ban that had barred Andrew from competing for a firefighter position.

But even that vote revealed the troubling attitude toward homeschooling among members of the city council.

As council members voted to remove the discriminatory restriction, some continued to express disdain for homeschooling. One member even questioned why homeschool graduates couldn’t simply obtain GEDs instead. Another said they just wanted to get this over with in the face of public pressure.

Rather than acknowledging that Andrew had been unfairly excluded despite his qualifications, the suggestion was that homeschool graduates should be treated differently from other high school graduates and be forced to obtain an additional credential to receive the same consideration as other applicants.

The city may have removed its discriminatory policy, but the council members’ remarks raise serious questions about whether that discrimination has truly ended.

Because instead of correcting the injustice it inflicted on Andrew, Fremont has now changed the hiring requirements again – placing him at a disadvantage all over again.

On October 2, after the city council removed the restriction against homeschool graduates, Fremont posted a new Firefighter/EMT or Paramedic position. But the city did not simply reopen the opportunity Andrew had been denied.

It deliberately established a different hiring process with different qualifications and a different competitive field.

When Andrew originally applied in April, he was seeking an entry-level firefighter position. He would have competed against other entry-level applicants, and that hiring process reportedly resulted in four appointments.

Now, Fremont has opened the position to experienced firefighters applying as lateral candidates. Those with at least two years of paid, full-time experience are exempt from the written examination, giving them an advantage that did not exist in Andrew’s original application process.

And instead of competing for one of four positions, Andrew now faces what appears to be a single vacancy.

The city excluded Andrew from one hiring process because he was homeschooled. Then, after being forced to remove that restriction, it chose to create a different process that leaves him in a worse competitive position than he would have occupied had Fremont treated him fairly from the beginning.

That is not an acceptable way to remedy discrimination.

And given the Fremont City Council’s openly disparaging comments about homeschooling, the decision to impose new requirements that disadvantage Andrew is particularly troubling.

Fremont cannot erase the harm it caused simply by removing the discriminatory language from its rules. Andrew already lost an opportunity to compete for a position he wanted and was qualified to pursue. The city’s subsequent decision to change the hiring process does nothing to restore that opportunity.

Andrew is going to apply for the new position anyway.

Not because he accepts what Fremont has done. Not because the city has made things right.

He’s applying because he wants to be a firefighter. Period.

He wants to serve his community. He has spent years working toward that goal. And he should not have to keep overcoming obstacles created by the very government officials who are supposed to evaluate applicants fairly.

The ACLJ is not going to stand by while Fremont continues to place Andrew at a disadvantage.

Today, we are demanding that the city correct the harm caused by its discriminatory hiring policy. We are demanding that Andrew receive the opportunity he should have received in April: to complete the testing and interview process under the original hiring criteria and be evaluated fairly against the original applicant pool.

The Fremont City Council has an opportunity to make this right. Council members are scheduled to meet in executive session Tuesday evening, and they can choose to resolve this matter rather than force Andrew into litigation.

But if Fremont refuses to correct the harm it has caused, the ACLJ is prepared to take the city to court.

Andrew’s story is about far more than one firefighter position. It’s about whether government officials can discriminate against a homeschool graduate, change their rules only after being challenged, and then leave the person they harmed to bear the consequences.

The city of Fremont made the decision to exclude Andrew. The city made the decision to change its hiring requirements after removing that exclusion. And the city now has the responsibility to make things right.

Andrew deserves the opportunity he was denied – not another set of obstacles standing between him and his dream of becoming a firefighter.

We will continue fighting for Andrew and for every homeschool graduate who deserves to be judged on their qualifications, not the educational choices their family made.

Stand with Andrew and sign our petition: Stop the Ban on Homeschool Firefighters.