Zion Ramos

Zion Ramos is a junior at Arkansas Connections Academy (ARCA), an online public school. Every day, students have a “social time” Zoom meeting where they are free to speak about whatever they want provided their comments are not violent, vulgar, or obscene. On September 23, 2025, inspired by the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, Zion decided to share his faith in a two-minute statement:
“Hello, my name is Zion. I won’t be long, but I have something very important to say. You may not want to hear it, but it’s the most important thing you will ever hear. 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.”

Suddenly, the teacher monitoring the call muted Zion, effectively cancelling his speech. Minutes later, she removed him from the Zoom meeting entirely, even as he was trying to finish sharing about Jesus. In response to this blatant violation of Zion’s religious freedom, First Liberty Institute sent a demand letter to the school.

In the letter, attorneys state, “As the Supreme Court’s holding in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District made clear, the First Amendment protects students’ expressions of their faith in public schools. The Court in Kennedy explained that the clauses of the First Amendment ‘work in tandem. Where the Free Exercise Clause protects religious exercises, whether communicative or not, the Free Speech Clause provides overlapping protection for expressive religious activities.’ 597 U.S. at 524. The result is that the First Amendment ‘doubly protects religious speech.’ Id.”

Following the letter, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressed interest in the situation and instructed the Arkansas Department of Education to open an investigation into the matter. 

Soon after, ARCA officials responded to the demand letter, inviting Zion back to the social time Zoom and guaranteeing him three minutes to share his faith. They said, “ARCA’s administration is dedicated to ensuring that every student has the opportunity to express their viewpoint in a respectful environment.” ARCA agreed to all three of First Liberty’s requests, allowing Zion to share his faith during a future social time, promising that “[s]chool officials will support the free speech and free exercise rights of students, including Mr. Ramos, in the future,” and agreeing to complete religious liberty training through the RESPECT Project. 

“We are grateful that school officials acknowledge how concerning this situation was for Zion and his family, and that federal and state law protect students’ religious expression during social gatherings,” said Kayla Toney, Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “Zion looks forward to sharing his faith during a future social time.”

“I’m glad the school agreed to do the right thing,” said Zion Ramos. “Freedom of speech isn’t just a right, it’s the foundation of our liberty. Christians must stand up, speak out, and defend our right to share what we believe.”