Fremont Rejects Volunteer Firefighter Over Homeschool Diploma
A 22-year-old Nebraska volunteer firefighter and state-licensed EMT has been blocked from a paid position with the Fremont Fire Department because his high school diploma came from homeschooling. The rejection came after Andrew Coates of Cedar Bluffs applied for a paid role in April. The original job posting said only that an applicant needed graduation from high school. Coates has a diploma and already does the work, responding to emergencies as a volunteer with Cedar Bluffs Fire.
The city of Fremont rejected his application anyway. Then, after the rejection, officials changed the job posting. The new language requires graduation from an accredited high school. Fremont’s human resources director says that an accredited diploma is standard when a high school diploma or GED is requested. What that means is that the written rule did not say what the city claims it meant, and the city waited until after Andrew Coates was rejected to make the posting match the outcome.
🚨#BREAKING: Outrage is erupting after a 22-year-old who runs into BURNING BUILDINGS as a volunteer firefighter was told he isn't qualified to be a paid firefighter…
…because he was HOMESCHOOLED.
Then the city changed the job posting to cover it up.
His name is Andrew… pic.twitter.com/6Dnx9UB6XZ
— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) September 21, 2026
“A career out of it would be the goal to get paid, to do what you love.”
— Andrew Coates
Coates is not a paper applicant. He holds a state EMT license and has hands-on experience running into burning buildings. He said his goal is simple: get paid to do what he loves. He has also made the issue bigger than himself. He says he is not angry about a single application. He wants every homeschooler to have an equal opportunity when applying for public service jobs.
During an appeal to the Fremont Civil Service Commission, Coates was backed by his own fire chief. The chief told the commission that Fremont is missing out on a capable candidate and that rejecting Coates because of homeschooling amounts to discrimination. Roughly thirty homeschool families attended the hearing in support. An attorney represented Coates. The hearing lasted about five hours.
Fremont Civil Service Commissioner Doug Backens rejected the word discrimination. He said he did not care to hear that word used in the hearing. The commission did voice concern about the original job posting being ambiguous about what a diploma means. But the commission ruled that it cannot change city policy. The practical result is that the Civil Service Commission will not protect Andrew Coates. The family has thirty days to decide whether to file in court.
This is not a story about a kid who failed a background check or couldn’t pass a physical. It is about a young man who is already doing the job for free being told he cannot be paid because of how he was educated. He is a certified EMT. His fire chief vouches for him. When a house is on fire at three in the morning, the family inside does not ask where the firefighter went to high school.
Homeschooled students in America frequently read above grade level, work with their hands, and volunteer in their communities. Andrew Coates is the proof. At 22, he runs into burning buildings while many of his peers are still figuring out what to do with their lives. The city of Fremont should be competing to hire someone like this. Instead, city officials changed the job posting after rejecting him, which looks like a cover-up.
The Fremont Fire Department should fix this. Hire Andrew Coates. And every city in Nebraska should take a hard look at rules that treat a homeschool diploma as second-class. The republic needs more young men and women who run toward danger, not fewer.