Georgia students sue over blocked protest in opposition to rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black college students who have been suspended for trying to protest Confederate flag displays at their school in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit against their college district and its board members, accusing them of allowing an in depth pattern of racism together with “overt bigotry and animosity by some white college students and teachers in opposition to African American college students.”

The scholars, joined by their moms as plaintiffs, already made news when their protest at Coosa High School was stifled last fall.

Now, in their lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Floyd County school district and its board members, they allege an intensive sample of racism, together with white students reenacting the murder of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a scholar who carried what seemed to be a whip and told a Black student “we used to whip you.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from carrying Black Lives Matter shirts, but Accomplice flag attire is suitable under the college’s gown code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity towards black students perpetrated by white students and lecturers; as well as the varsity’s viewpoint discrimination in its costume code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary policies to the detriment of Black college students.”

Joining the scholars as plaintiffs are their moms, Lekisha Turner and Jessica Murray. Murray claims she was pulled over by a police officer after picking up the suspended children, and detained till school officials presented her with a letter threatening felony trespassing fees if she was found again on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday mentioned the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by lawyers to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County college system looks ahead to presenting the facts on this case in court docket,” White informed The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Coosa High near Rome is in the coronary heart of northwest Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District, which despatched Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress. About 10% of the college’s greater than 800 students in grades 8-12 are Black, state enrollment figures show. About 58% are white, whereas 26% are Hispanic and the the rest are multiracial or another race.

The lawsuit accuses faculty officials of making “an atmosphere where certain viewpoints including white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a group of students sought to protest the ability of their classmates to put on the Confederate flag on campus, the principal threatened pupil Deserae Turner that she might be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal additionally introduced over the intercom that any student protesting and even possessing a flyer asserting the protest would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest had been suspended for five days, whereas nonblack pupil organizers weren't disciplined. Attorneys additionally allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that students not submit on social media violated college students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth student who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The suit says gown code guidelines permitting Confederate flag attire but not Black Lives Matter apparel are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a authorities agency, which additionally violates the First Amendment. It says the district additionally has violated the students’ and parents’ proper to equal safety under the 14th Amendment, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among different treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the college district be blocked from additional punishing the students due to their speech, take away prior punishments from college records and pay money damages.

Among the attorneys bringing the suit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer searching for the Democratic nomination for attorney general in Massachusetts.

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Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.