Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against insurgent flag

ATLANTA (AP) — A number of Black students who have been suspended for trying to protest Accomplice flag displays at their college in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to their faculty district and its board members, accusing them of allowing an extensive sample of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white college students and lecturers against African American college students.”

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

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday in opposition to the Floyd County school district and its board members, they allege an intensive pattern of racism, together with 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 told a Black pupil “we used to whip you.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from carrying Black Lives Matter shirts, but Accomplice flag apparel is acceptable under the school’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

The swimsuit faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black students perpetrated by white students and lecturers; 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.”

Becoming a member of the scholars as plaintiffs are their mothers, Lekisha Turner and Jessica Murray. Murray claims she was pulled over by a police officer after selecting up the suspended children, and detained until school officials offered her with a letter threatening felony trespassing costs if she was discovered again on college grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by attorneys to not get into specifics presently. “The Floyd County faculty system appears to be like forward to presenting the facts on this example in court,” White informed The Associated Press in a cellphone interview.

Coosa Excessive near 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 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 remainder are multiracial or some other race.

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

When a gaggle of scholars sought to protest the flexibility of their classmates to wear the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened pupil Deserae Turner that she could possibly be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal additionally introduced over the intercom that any scholar protesting or even possessing a flyer asserting 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 were not disciplined. Lawyers also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that college students not put up on social media violated students’ First Modification rights. A fifth student who was not suspended has also sued.

The go well with says dress code rules permitting Accomplice flag attire but not Black Lives Matter apparel are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a government company, which additionally violates the First Amendment. It says the district additionally has violated the scholars’ and parents’ right to equal protection below the 14th Amendment, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Amongst other remedies, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from further punishing the scholars due to their speech, take away prior punishments from school data and pay money damages.

Among the many lawyers bringing the suit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer looking for the Democratic nomination for legal professional general in Massachusetts.

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