Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — A number of Black college students who have been suspended for making an attempt to protest Accomplice flag displays at their school in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to their college 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 teachers against African American college students.”

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

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

They also allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, however Confederate flag apparel is suitable beneath the varsity’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black students perpetrated by white students and teachers; in addition to the school’s viewpoint discrimination in its costume code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary policies to the detriment of Black students.”

Becoming a member of the students as plaintiffs are their mothers, Lekisha Turner and Jessica Murray. Murray claims she was pulled over by a police officer after picking up the suspended youngsters, and detained till faculty officers offered her with a letter threatening legal trespassing expenses if she was found again on college grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by legal professionals to not get into specifics at the moment. “The Floyd County school system seems ahead to presenting the information on this case in court,” White instructed The Related Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa Excessive near Rome is within the coronary 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 students in grades 8-12 are Black, state enrollment figures show. About 58% are white, whereas 26% are Hispanic and the the remainder are multiracial or another race.

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

When a bunch of scholars sought to protest the ability 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 introduced over the intercom that any pupil 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, whereas nonblack pupil organizers weren't disciplined. Legal professionals additionally allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that college students not submit on social media violated college students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth scholar who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The go well with says costume code rules permitting Confederate flag attire however not Black Lives Matter attire are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a government company, which also violates the First Amendment. It says the district also has violated the students’ and parents’ right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among different treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the school district be blocked from additional punishing the scholars because of their speech, take away prior punishments from faculty records and pay money damages.

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

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