A high school student was muted and kicked off a Zoom session after sharing his Christian faith during his school's daily "social time," according to a religious liberty legal group.
On Sept. 23, Zion Ramos, a junior at Arkansas Connections Academy (ARCA), an online public school, was participating in his class’s daily 30-minute social session on Zoom.
According to First Liberty Institute, a religious liberty legal group, students are permitted during that time to talk "about whatever they want as long as the comments are not violent, vulgar or obscene."
Ramos decided to share a two-minute statement about his faith, inspired by the memorial service for Charlie Kirk held two days prior.
According to a letter from First Liberty, high school student Zion Ramos was muted then removed from an online class's "social time" after he began speaking about his faith. (iStock)
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He reportedly told classmates, "We don’t know how long we have. One day, it’ll all be over. It may not be today, tomorrow, a month, or even years from now, but when our time is up, all we will have is eternity. And we only have two places to go: heaven or hell. And we need to decide where we want to spend it."
First Liberty said Ramos’s teacher, Kelsey Reid, muted him and removed him from the call.
Reid later told Ramos she did not object to the content of his message but to the manner in which he delivered it, noting the short session "does not allow all students to use Social Time as a speaking platform." She suggested he use the chat function instead.
First Liberty claims that students at ARCA have previously been allowed to discuss topics including current events, personal relationships and LGBTQ-related issues without being muted.
First Liberty sent a demand letter Tuesday to school officials, arguing they had violated Ramos’s First Amendment rights, as well as state and federal protections for religious expression in public schools. (iStock)
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The group sent a demand letter Tuesday to ARCA officials, arguing they had violated Ramos’s First Amendment rights, as well as state and federal protections for religious expression in public schools.
The letter cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which it says establishes that religious speech is "doubly protected" under both the Free Exercise and Free Speech clauses.
First Liberty is asking the school to allow Ramos three minutes to share his faith during a future social session, pledge not to censor religious expression in the future, and require school officials to complete a religious liberty training course within two months.
"School officials cannot silence students who are sharing their faith with other students during social gatherings," Kayla Toney, counsel for First Liberty, said in a press release. "Public schools are not religion-free zones, but by censoring faith on campus, officials unjustly marginalize students like Zion who simply want to share the Gospel with peers."
The letter gives ARCA until Oct. 10 to respond before potential legal action. It was also copied to Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Attorney General Tim Griffin, Education Secretary Jacob Oliva and U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
Arkansas Connections Academy gave the following statement to Fox News Digital:
"We understand why this situation is concerning to our student, his family and our community. Our school is committed to protecting the rights of all our students and our administration takes this issue very seriously. It is clear that this student should have had the opportunity to express his point of view, and we welcome the student to speak at an upcoming Social Time event. In addition, we are exploring training opportunities to help prepare all our educators with guidance on moderating student conversations."