In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the Fremont City Council changed the city’s hiring policy that had turned away Andrew Coates, 22, for a fire department job in the town of 27,100.
With his EMT certification, and his work as a Cedar Bluffs volunteer firefighter, Coates was arguably well-qualified for the full-time job in Freemont.
He ran into trouble, however, when he was told employment by the City of Fremont required a diploma from an accredited high school.
According to Coates, that stated policy was altered slightly after he applied. The previous city policy did not mention anything about accreditation, he said.
The vote Tuesday means the City of Fremont will now accept diplomas from non-accredited schools, but the city leaders did not vote to hire Coates outright.
Perkins credits public, not city leaders
Just hours before the Fremont City Council convened, “Washington Watch” host Tony Perkins did not speak kindly of the city officials and their treatment of Coates.
“A FOIA request showed that the Coates family reached out to the mayor’s office 10 times, from April to July, trying to get this matter resolved,” Perkins told his audience.
Only after the issue gained national attention, and after public lobbying on behalf of Coates, Perkins said, did city leaders take it seriously and address the young man’s issue with a diploma.
Seth Coates, the young man's father, also seemed to make that point Tuesday night.
"We stand for the simple principle that government exists to serve its citizens and not to ignore them," the father, speaking during public comments, told the city council.
On his program, Perkins also credited a Nebraska state senator, Dave Murman, who is a homeschool advocate and has followed the Coates’ controversy.
Sen. Murman, who chairs a senate education committee, advised Perkins that legislators are working on a future bill that addresses the accreditation issue.
“At the local level, it could easily be corrected,” Murman insisted. “It's just pure discrimination against homeschoolers. That's what has transpired in Fremont.”
Back in the Tuesday night city meeting, an Omaha TV station reported the issue over homeschooling was dismissed by a city councilman, Paul Von Behren.
“Unfortunately, this has been turned into a homeschooling issue. It really isn’t that,” the council member told the meeting. “It started as an accredited, non-accredited, and in this case, the applicant was homeschooled. So, it wasn’t really directed at that. It was just part of the way that it played out.”
