Georgia college students sue over blocked protest in opposition to rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black college students who had been suspended for attempting to protest Confederate flag displays at their school in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit towards their school district and its board members, accusing them of permitting an intensive sample of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white students and teachers against African American students.”

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

Now, in their lawsuit filed Tuesday towards the Floyd County faculty district and its board members, they allege an intensive sample of racism, including white students reenacting the murder of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a student who carried what appeared to be a whip and instructed a Black pupil “we used to whip you.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, but Confederate flag apparel is suitable underneath the varsity’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

The swimsuit faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity towards black students perpetrated by white college students and teachers; in addition to the school’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 mothers, Lekisha Turner and Jessica Murray. Murray claims she was pulled over by a police officer after choosing up the suspended children, and detained till college officers presented her with a letter threatening prison trespassing charges if she was found again on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday said the district disputes the allegations but had been suggested by lawyers to not get into specifics presently. “The Floyd County faculty system seems to be forward to presenting the details on this situation in court docket,” White informed The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Coosa High 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 varsity’s more 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 faculty officers of creating “an atmosphere where certain viewpoints including white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically totally different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

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

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

The go well with says gown code guidelines allowing Confederate flag attire however not Black Lives Matter apparel 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’ right to equal safety below the 14th Amendment, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other 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 data and pay money damages.

Among the many legal professionals bringing the go well with is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer searching for the Democratic nomination for attorney normal in Massachusetts.

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