Georgia students sue over blocked protest in opposition to rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — A number of Black students who were suspended for making an attempt to protest Confederate flag displays at their faculty in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit against their college district and its board members, accusing them of permitting an in depth pattern of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white college students and academics towards African American college 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 in opposition to the Floyd County faculty district and its board members, they allege an in depth sample of racism, including white students reenacting the murder of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a pupil who carried what seemed to be a whip and informed a Black student “we used to whip you.”

In addition they allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, but Confederate flag attire is suitable underneath the college’s gown code, the lawsuit says.

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

Joining the scholars as plaintiffs are their mothers, Lekisha Turner and Jessica Murray. Murray claims she was pulled over by a police officer after choosing up the suspended children, and detained until college officers presented her with a letter threatening legal trespassing expenses if she was discovered 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 college system seems to be forward to presenting the info on this situation in court docket,” White informed The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Coosa High close to Rome is in the heart of northwest Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District, which sent Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress. About 10% of the college’s greater than 800 college 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 some other race.

The lawsuit accuses college officials 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 gaggle of scholars sought to protest the flexibility of their classmates to put on the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened student Deserae Turner that she might 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 asserting the protest would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest have been suspended for five days, whereas nonblack student organizers were not disciplined. Legal professionals additionally allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that students not submit on social media violated students’ First Modification rights. A fifth student who was not suspended has also sued.

The suit says gown code rules allowing Confederate flag apparel however not Black Lives Matter attire are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a authorities company, which also violates the First Amendment. It says the district additionally has violated the students’ and fogeys’ proper to equal safety underneath the 14th Modification, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among different treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from additional punishing the students because of their speech, remove prior punishments from faculty information and pay cash damages.

Among the many attorneys bringing the suit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer seeking the Democratic nomination for lawyer normal in Massachusetts.

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