Georgia students sue over blocked protest towards rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black students who had been suspended for attempting to protest Confederate flag displays at their faculty in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit against their school 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 academics against African American students.”

The scholars, joined by their moms as plaintiffs, already made information when their protest at Coosa Excessive Faculty was stifled final fall.

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Floyd County college district and its board members, they allege an in depth pattern of racism, together with white college students reenacting the homicide of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a pupil who carried what gave the impression to be a whip and instructed a Black student “we used to whip you.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, however Confederate flag apparel is appropriate beneath the college’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity towards black students perpetrated by white college students and academics; in addition to the school’s viewpoint discrimination in its dress code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary policies to the detriment of Black 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 choosing up the suspended youngsters, and detained till college officers presented her with a letter threatening felony trespassing expenses if she was found once more on college grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday mentioned the district disputes the allegations however had been advised by attorneys to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County faculty system seems ahead to presenting the facts on this situation in court docket,” White instructed The Related Press in a telephone interview.

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

The lawsuit accuses college officers of creating “an atmosphere the place certain viewpoints including white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted but speech of an ideologically different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a group of scholars sought to protest the ability of their classmates to put on the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened pupil Deserae Turner that she may very well be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal additionally introduced over the intercom that any scholar protesting and even possessing a flyer saying the protest would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that four Black plaintiffs who organized the protest had been suspended for 5 days, while nonblack student organizers were not disciplined. Lawyers also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that college students not publish on social media violated college students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth pupil who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The swimsuit says dress code rules permitting Confederate flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter attire are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a government agency, which also violates the First Modification. It says the district additionally has violated the scholars’ and oldsters’ proper to equal protection below the 14th Modification, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the college district be blocked from further punishing the scholars because of their speech, remove prior punishments from faculty records and pay cash damages.

Among the legal professionals bringing the swimsuit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer looking for the Democratic nomination for attorney normal in Massachusetts.

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