Georgia students sue over blocked protest towards rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — A number of Black students who have been suspended for attempting to protest Confederate flag shows at their school in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit against their college district and its board members, accusing them of permitting an extensive pattern of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white college students and academics in opposition to African American college students.”

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

Now, of 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 murder of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a student who carried what appeared to be a whip and informed a Black student “we used to whip you.”

They also allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from carrying Black Lives Matter shirts, however Accomplice flag attire is acceptable beneath the school’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

The go well with faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity towards black students perpetrated by white college students and academics; in addition to the school’s viewpoint discrimination in its costume code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary insurance policies to the detriment of Black college 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 choosing up the suspended children, and detained till faculty officials introduced her with a letter threatening legal trespassing charges if she was discovered once more on college grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday mentioned the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by attorneys to not get into specifics right now. “The Floyd County faculty system seems forward to presenting the information on this example in court,” White told The Related Press in a phone interview.

Coosa Excessive 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 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 college officers of creating “an atmosphere the place certain viewpoints together with 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 ability of their classmates to wear the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened scholar Deserae Turner that she could be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal also announced over the intercom that any student protesting or even possessing a flyer asserting the protest could be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest have been suspended for 5 days, while nonblack student organizers weren't disciplined. Legal professionals also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that college students not put up on social media violated students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth student who was not suspended has also sued.

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

Among other treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from further punishing the scholars because of their speech, remove prior punishments from school information and pay cash damages.

Among the many lawyers bringing the swimsuit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer seeking the Democratic nomination for lawyer basic in Massachusetts.

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