{"id":29297,"date":"2025-10-03T12:03:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T16:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=29297"},"modified":"2025-10-03T12:03:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T16:03:58","slug":"arkansas-student-removed-from-zoom-class-after-sharing-faith-receives-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/10\/arkansas-student-removed-from-zoom-class-after-sharing-faith-receives-apology","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas Student Removed From Zoom Class After Sharing Faith Receives Apology"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Arkansas student has been invited back to his school\u2019s social time to share his faith after being muted during a Zoom call. 11th<\/sup>-grader Zion Ramos attends Arkansas Connections Academy (ARCA), an online public school, which includes a thirty-minute Zoom \u201csocial session\u201d where students are allowed to discuss whatever topics they would like with each other, provided they are not \u201cviolent, vulgar, or obscene.\u201d Ramos, inspired by Charlie Kirk\u2019s memorial, decided to use the time to share his faith. After telling his fellow students he wouldn\u2019t take too much of their time, Ramos asked them to focus on life after death. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how long we have. One day, it\u2019ll all be over,\u201d he told the other students. \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a letter<\/a> by First Liberty Institute (FLI), which is representing Ramos, high school teacher Kelsey Reid, who was monitoring the social hour, muted Ramos. He then unmuted himself and insisted he had a right to speak. According to FLI, students have used the time to discuss LGBTQ+ related topics, relationships, and shown off a pocketknife without being muted. \u201cWe need to decide how we will spend eternity. We can accept the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts,\u201d Ramos argued before Ms. Reid kicked him out of the Zoom meeting. The meeting was then shut down completely. Ms. Reid sent a message, explaining her decision to shut down Ramos. \u201cI would like to explain why you were removed from Social Time today,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI did not remove you based on the information you were sharing, but rather due to the manner in which you were sharing it. We have a short amount of time for students to engage with one another and unfortunately that does not allow for all students to use Social Time as a speaking platform.\u201d She encouraged him to use the chat function instead.<\/p>\n

FLI sent a demand letter to the school, accusing Ms. Reid of violating Ramos\u2019s First Amendment rights, particularly the Free Exercise clause. \u201cThe Free Exercise Clause provides robust protection for religious students like Zion seeking to express their faith,\u201d wrote FLI. FLI asked that the school allow Ramos to have three minutes to express his faith, that the school would support students\u2019 First Amendment rights, and that teachers would receive proper training through the RESPECT project. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders also directed the Arkansas Department of Education to open an investigation.<\/p>\n

Shortly after receiving the demand letter, the school responded and agreed to all of FLI\u2019s demands. Ramos said<\/a> he was, \u201cglad the school agreed to do the right thing.\u201d \u201cFreedom of speech isn\u2019t just a right, it\u2019s the foundation of our liberty. Christians must stand up, speak out, and defend our right to share what we believe.\u201d Kayla Toney, Counsel for FLI, said officials did the right thing. \u201cWe are grateful that school officials acknowledge how concerning this situation was for Zion and his family, and that federal and state law protect students\u2019 religious expression during social gatherings,\u201d she said. \u201cZion looks forward to sharing his faith during a future social time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Arkansas student has been invited back to his school\u2019s social time to share his faith after being muted during a Zoom call. 11th-grader Zion Ramos attends Arkansas Connections Academy (ARCA), an online public school, which includes a thirty-minute Zoom \u201csocial session\u201d where students are allowed to discuss whatever topics they would like with each…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":29300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nArkansas Student Removed From Zoom Class After Sharing Faith Receives Apology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Arkansas student Zion Ramos, muted for sharing his faith on Zoom, wins back his right to speak after school agrees to restore his free speech.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/10\/arkansas-student-removed-from-zoom-class-after-sharing-faith-receives-apology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arkansas Student Removed From Zoom Class After Sharing Faith Receives Apology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arkansas student Zion Ramos, muted for sharing his faith on Zoom, wins back his right to speak after school agrees to restore his free speech.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/10\/arkansas-student-removed-from-zoom-class-after-sharing-faith-receives-apology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta 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