Georgia students sue over blocked protest towards 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 faculty district and its board members, accusing them of allowing an in depth sample of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white college students and lecturers towards African American students.”

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

Now, in their lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Floyd County college district and its board members, they allege an intensive sample 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 advised a Black pupil “we used to whip you.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from carrying Black Lives Matter shirts, however Accomplice flag attire is acceptable 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 lecturers; in addition to the college’s viewpoint discrimination in its gown 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 until faculty officials introduced her with a letter threatening prison trespassing charges if she was discovered 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 presently. “The Floyd County school system seems forward to presenting the information on this example in court docket,” White instructed The Related Press in a cellphone 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 school’s more than 800 students in grades 8-12 are Black, state enrollment figures show. About 58% are white, while 26% are Hispanic and the the remainder are multiracial or another race.

The lawsuit accuses faculty officers of making “an environment where certain viewpoints including white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted but speech of an ideologically totally different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a bunch of scholars sought to protest the ability of their classmates to wear the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened student Deserae Turner that she could possibly be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal also announced over the intercom that any scholar protesting and even possessing a flyer announcing the protest can be disciplined.

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

The go well with says dress code guidelines permitting Accomplice flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter apparel are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a government agency, which additionally violates the First Modification. It says the district also has violated the scholars’ and fogeys’ proper to equal safety below the 14th Modification, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other remedies, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from further punishing the students because of their speech, take away prior punishments from college information and pay money damages.

Among the many lawyers bringing the suit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer in search of the Democratic nomination for attorney common in Massachusetts.

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