(Picture credit ACLJ)
A Christian public-interest law firm on Monday informed the city of Fremont that it intends to file a federal lawsuit on behalf of Andrew Coates, the homeschooled volunteer firefighter denied an application for a paid firefighter position at Fremont Fire Department.
“We just sent a litigation hold letter, putting the city of Fremont on notice that federal litigation is reasonably anticipated and demanding the immediate preservation of all relevant evidence,” Nathan Moelker, senior associate counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) said in a Sept. 29 website posting.
“The city cannot delete or lose the emails, text messages, meeting notes, recordings, job-posting drafts, or other records that could reveal why it rejected Andrew’s homeschool diploma – and why it changed the written job requirements after excluding him. If Fremont treated Andrew unfairly because he was homeschooled, the public deserves to know how and why that decision was made. And we will hold them accountable so that this can’t ever happen to another homeschooler again,” added Moelker, who included a link to ACLJ’s Sept. 28 litigation hold letter addressed to Travis Jacott of the Adams & Sullivan law firm in Papillon.
The ACLJ’s September 28 litigation hold letter can be found here.
“State educational authorities have recognized that students who complete Nebraska’s homeschool pathway earn the credential the law contemplates and do not need to obtain a GED. In fact, a letter from the state explicitly indicated that a GED would not be ‘appropriate or necessary’ for such graduates,” Moelker wrote.
A city council member who had been corresponding with The Plains Sentinel prior to learning about the ACLJ letter now has expressed to The Plains Sentinel that his earlier emails may be considered “a potential liability to the city’s legal position.”
As The Plains Sentinel previously reported, the city of Fremont says that under its existing employment policy, Coates was not qualified for the firefighter opening due to a lack of a high school diploma from an accredited high school.
ACLJ’s news announcement Tuesday comes hours ahead of a city council meeting where a resolution to revise the city’s policy is to be debated and voted on.
In a “staff report” appended to that resolution in the meeting agenda document, city officials noted that “Without widely acknowledged standards or measurement, there is no standardized diploma or certificate to show the level of academic achievement for those completing exempt or approved education. Given that fact, the City of Fremont has elected not to consider applicants without an accredited high school diploma or G.E.D. (high school equivalency), citing potential liability risks in hiring individuals without education ‘certification’.”
Nonetheless, the report added, “In both the public and private sectors, it is common for all lawfully issued high school diplomas to be given equal footing, especially given the many examples of exempt and approved school graduates going on to high levels of academic and professional achievement.”
“Beyond our hiring process, there are other options to manage risk,” the staff reported added. “Those would include but are certainly not limited to: probationary employment, annual performance reviews, basic competency testing, skills training, prior training, prior experience and skills testing.”
“The purpose of this resolution is to revise our current HR hiring policy to acknowledge and accept lawfully issued high school diplomas to fulfill high school-level education requirements for city jobs,” the report concluded.
Yet it is precisely that staff report which the ACLJ picks up on in its letter to the city attorney as a crucial indicator of potential discrimination.
“The City Council is considering proposed Resolution No. 2026-256, which would accept graduates of non-accredited schools, including Nebraska Rule 13 exempt schools and Rule 14 approved schools, as satisfying high-school-level minimum qualifications for City employment, including civil-service positions. The accompanying staff report describes alternative means of managing hiring risk, including probationary employment, performance reviews, competency testing, skills training, and consideration of prior training and experience,” noted Nathan Moelker, joined on the letter by his ACLJ colleagues Lindsey Bachman and Benjamin Sisney, as well as local Fremont counsel Shane J. Placek of SidnerLaw.
“Fremont never determined whether Mr. Coates was qualified. It prevented him from taking the written examination, physical-agility test, interviews, and other competitive steps because it rejected the credential produced by his religious education,” observed Moelker.
The Plains Sentinel has reached out to the Fremont city clerk as well as Jacott’s law firm for comment.
Fremont Changes Policy Ahead of Lawsuit
On Tuesday evening, the Fremont City Council voted unanimously to reverse its policy and allow homeschool diplomas from applicants. Dozens of homeschool families attended the late night meeting to express their frustration with the city over its initial decision.
Multiple Fremont council members told The Plains Sentinel the policy correction was necessary because its HR Director Jennifer McDuffee refused to act as soon as the possibility of litigation was mentioned.
Coates’ father, Seth Coates, spoke during public comment at the meeting and signaled that the family was not done fighting for answers from the city.
“Changing a policy going forward does not answer what happened in the past. It does not erase the decisions that were made and does not answer why citizens spent months asking questions without getting meaningful answers. And it does not repair trust simply because a new policy is adopted. A policy can change with a vote. Trust takes something more.”
An investigation by The Plains Sentinel found that Seth Coates had appealed nearly half a dozen times to the city council with no action being taken until his son’s situation became a national news story.
— Ken Shepherd is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel. He is a former editor at Fox News Digital and the Washington Times.
Hopefully the threat of a lawsuit gets the city to mend its ways, and hire him
This injustice requires accountability and consequences. You can't screw this young man around until you feel the heat, and then change the hiring requirements verbiage because a light has been shined on your prejudice.