A Week We'll Never Forget

Sekulow

This episode of Sekulow recaps two major developments involving the ACLJ and global events. The hosts detail a new lawsuit filed against Fremont, Nebraska, after a qualified homeschool graduate

Key takeaways

• Andrew Coates, a 22-year-old homeschool graduate and certified EMT, was denied a full-time firefighter job in Fremont, Nebraska, because his diploma was deemed unaccredited despite being state-recognized.
• The ACLJ intervened in the Nebraska case after city officials retroactively changed hiring regulations to specifically exclude homeschool diplomas following public pressure.

Main topics

• Homeschool discrimination lawsuit in Nebraska
• Foiled mid-air terrorist attack on flight to Israel

Notable quotes

"It was clear he was being targeted specifically because someone just had it out for homeschoolers."

Conclusion

The episode serves as both a legal update on the ACLJ's homeschooling

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) It's been quite a busy week. A major new ACLJ case and a terror attack shut down within seconds of Speaker 3 (0:05) disaster. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Sekulow. Speaker 3 (0:14) We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. Speaker 3 (0:23) And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Speaker 1 (0:26) Welcome to Sekulow. It has been quite a busy week here at the ACLJ. We're going to recap a lot of it today. Of course, the two major stories that came out this week. Brand new ACLJ case. If you've not followed what's been going on, it was a homeschool graduate, 22-year-old. It's not a kid. Certified EMT. Rookie of the year volunteer firefighter in his hometown. in Fremont, Nebraska and was told, you know what? There's a job opening. Why don't you apply to become a full-time paid career Speaker 8 (0:59) fireman? He thought, you know, this is it. This is going to be my time. This is my moments, what I've been wanting to do in my life. And they said, oh, one small Speaker 1 (1:07) problem. You have been completely denied. Why? Because of your qualifications. Why? He's a certified EMT. He is currently working on his associate's degree in what? Fire science. He is rookie of the year firefighter. But what was it? It was that homeschool diploma doesn't hold up to the rigorous test, I guess, of what needs to be the qualifications to be a firefighter. Fremont, Nebraska. But you know what? The ACLJ jumped in and said, no, no, no, you can't do this. It was clear he was being targeted specifically because someone just had it out for homeschoolers. You guys made a stink about it. We jumped in. He's going to be joining us. You're going to see a segment we did with him a little bit later in the show today, because I always think you guys should see the client, hear from them, listen to them when you can, because it is so important to have that point of view. And when you see this story, you're not going to believe it. And of course, you've been joining us this week talking about it. They did have a city council meeting where they said, you know what? Maybe we need to write that wrong. Why? Because the ACLJ is breathing down our neck. All our other supporters are giving us calls. All of this is happening all at once. We need to make sure that we take care of this. But you know what it doesn't do? Though the new resolution says a homeschool diploma is fine, that it, of course, originally it didn't, by the way, say it wasn't. They retcon and fix that. Doesn't give this kid a job. doesn't protect the rights of homeschoolers around the country. So we're going to take it as far as we have to. This is a big lawsuit that we are going to be a part of, and you need to join with us at the ACLJ. And of course, you can do that at ACLJ.org. Become a champion, if you like. That's someone that gives on a monthly basis. I would appreciate that. And of course, updates coming out of that foiled terrorist attack. And again, when you hear that, you may think of just, oh, they stopped it ahead of time. No, no. Mid-terror attack, over the skies, headed to... Israel, headed to Tel Aviv. Hundreds on board. They were able to overtake it. We'll hear from Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem. I want to give a full recap of all that's been going on this week. It's been so busy. I want to make sure you didn't miss segments with Jeff, segments with our client. You want to hear from him, from Andrew Coates. Again, this homeschooler graduate. Again, I'm a homeschool graduate and a current homeschool parent. The lawyer for Andrew, the ACLJ attorney. Homeschool graduate. So of course it's a little important to us. I've been saying it hits home for us. So we are going to take this as far as we can. It is an old school ACLJ style case. We've been supporting the rights of homeschoolers for nearly 40 years. I want you to be a part of that as well. So if I can encourage you to please go to ACLJ.org, support if you can, help us in this week strong. Again, that's at ACLJ.org. If you ever consider donating, this is a great time to do it. Of course, all of our content is available and all of our legal help is available without... A paywall. That's right. If you're one of our ACLJ attorneys or you're one of our ACLJ clients, you get an ACLJ attorney at zero cost. If you want to watch our show, it's at zero cost. If you want to read our incredible content, share it with your friends, you're not going to get a pop-up saying, you need to sign up. But that is only because people like you support the work on a continual basis. People that become ACLJ champions. People that say, yes, I will dedicate $5 or $500 of my income to the great organization, the great work we do here. The best media minds, the best legal minds, all because of you. We're a little bit different here. We don't just tell you what's happening. We get stuff done. Be a part of this world-changing efforts here at the ACLJ today. I'm going to encourage you to do that again at ACLJ.org. Again, great content coming up. Don't go anywhere. If you can for a moment, please think about supporting the work at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Speaker 8 (5:03) back to Sekulow. Jeff Balaban is joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem. Of course, we are covering the news. It is the top story right now around the world, as it should be. And as of right now, the passengers are reuniting with their families at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Jeff, of Speaker 1 (5:19) course, we all, you know, we woke up to this. I got up around five o'clock this morning. I opened my phone and I see this, you know, thwarted, and they kept referring to it as a 9-11 style. terrorist attack when Speaker 8 (5:29) you hear that initially you're going to go okay we stopped something early on but no no no that was not the situation this happened mid-air where you had a pilot attack another pilot to allegedly what we've been told right now hijacked this plane filled with israelis on the way to tel aviv and thankfully The crew and a lot of the other passengers took things into their own hands, did not let this happen, and now have flown to safety. As we know, we've seen some of the images. We could show some of the images. Some of these are bloody, by the way. I'm just going to give you a fair warning for those who are watching right now. You could see there was all, I mean, there are videos and pictures that are way worse than this, where I've seen blood smattered all over this flight, because not only were they trying to help the pilot who had been stabbed and been attacked by the other pilot, they also, you know, did what they needed to Speaker 1 (6:15) do. to protect the flight against the pilot who was potentially hijacking this flight to do nefarious, Speaker 8 (6:22) nefarious things. Of course, the press is being a little bit cautious in what they're Speaker 1 (6:27) calling this, but I think, Jeff, it is clearly, we know the trajectory of where this is going to go. Speaker 4 (6:35) Right. The press, as usual, refraining from saying what's obvious for as long as they can refrain from saying what's obvious. But there are numerous reports that the co-pilot is Omani and that he was yelling Allah Akbar, which tends to tip the hand as to what the intentions are of this attack. The concerns were that not only could they have. taken these citizens or these Israelis and other passengers on the plane hostage. They could have used it to do a 9-11 style attack by crashing the plane into some site in Israel. There are many things that could have happened that, thank God, were averted. And across Israel, from the upper echelons, politically and militarily, to the people in the street, the reaction is one of gratitude, the belief that this is a genuine miracle, and pride that the Israeli passengers... really were able to overwhelm this, were able to breach the cockpit door and overwhelm the attacker. And thank God the flight was safe. I don't know if you saw images, but the rudder was broken. Even being able to land the flight was extraordinary. My understanding is there were also maybe some Russian-Ukrainian passengers who were helpful in terms of landing the flight. And so thank God this has a relatively happy ending. in terrible crisis averted, but it was obviously terrifying for the long minutes that the passengers had to endure this. And Speaker 8 (7:51) it should be a wake-up call. Yeah, there were two pilots who happened to be on board. They said like deadheading, you're going to another, probably headed to Tel Aviv to be pilots for another flight. That happens all the time. So they happened to be on board, were able to fly this to safety. Like you said, it is a miracle, but it's a miracle that we also have to take with serious... Speaker 1 (8:12) serious warning when you see what's happening this could have very easily gone the other way sure we can all sigh a bit of relief and cheer on these passengers as we should uh being heroes in this situation absolutely Speaker 8 (8:24) but that doesn't mean the threat isn't there and even in situations where you think well i mean it's hard to protect yourself from certain things like hey these were not this wasn't someone overwhelming the pilot this was the pilot uh you know deciding that he was going to take things into his own hands and cause this kind of chaos. And again, thankfully, thank God, there were other people on board who were able to overwhelm him. But this could have very easily gone the other way. We would have had a very different attitude today. Speaker 4 (8:56) Look, this problem, this is a fairly, a very spectacular example of a problem that we see in America across the board also, where people with a particular ideology, I'm not saying all Muslims, I would never say that, but there's an Islamist violent jihadi ideology that is not unpopular, and they become doctors and nurses and threaten to use their position to kill people they disagree with or people they consider infidels. We have pilots. In other words, there's a genuine problem of a strain of Islamism that is a proximate threat. to a lot of us. This is a particular spectacular example, but we at the ACLJ have dealt with this in terms of licensing, again, of medical professionals here in America who threaten to use their licenses to commit harm to patients who they disagree with. I mean, I thought this Speaker 8 (9:45) morning when we were discussing who would be on, obviously, who wanted you on, and I have a lot of friends that are currently in Israel or just made themselves back or they're in between travel dates. And because of the seriousness of this, I was like, no, I don't even know if I'm comfortable. exposing that they're there, even though I don't know if they're talking about it because it's just weird what enters your mind right now. But you had Prime Minister Netanyahu said, the pilot tried to crash this plane. This clearly was a terrorist activity. And then, of course, you have the American journalists. who are, as you said, slow to report this. Fox has been fine. Fox has been very clear on it. But of course, you have the New York Times. I think we have some of their headlines that just say, you know, the breaking news, a plane flying Speaker 1 (10:24) from Israel was diverted after an altercation between the pilot and co-pilot. Sounds like they were having, you know, a marital argument. And, you know, so we had to land the plane because, you know, they couldn't decide on something. And then you had the BBC putting Israel-bound flight diverted after flight fight between pilots. Again, Fight between pilots, sure. Did that happen? Of course it happened. They didn't put on there that they were brutally stabbed him and essentially had done everything but killed Speaker 8 (10:52) him. And thankfully, as of right now, in critical condition, but hopefully will survive. Speaker 4 (10:59) The media plays this role in trying to create a narrative, but I think most people see through it at this point. But yeah, they're doing what they see as their job, which is spinning a narrative, and it's hopelessly not related to actual reality. And these things should matter to all of us, because anybody who gets on public transportation needs to worry about these things and think about it. I'd like to know that our media is telling the truth. My favorite was the BBC actually repeatedly referring to Ben-Gurion Airport, which is named for the first prime minister of Israel. They called it Ben-Gvir Airport, which is a current Israeli politician who the left likes to demonize in every way possible and turn into a character of evil. And they called it Ben-Gvir Airport. It was actually... You couldn't make that kind of garbage up. Speaker 8 (11:38) No, I mean, one of our team members just sent me a text. He goes, it was a fiery but mostly peaceful hijacking is what was going on. I mean, that's true because that's what we've seen the media play out here is this narrative. Again, they can't say anything when it comes to Israel without giving some sort of at least caveat to it not being somehow terrorist related. And I know, I don't want to give any credence to Speaker 1 (12:02) it, but I know by the end of the day. where I'm sure it's happening already, where the media and where social