Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against insurgent flag

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

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

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Floyd County school district and its board members, they allege an extensive pattern 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 instructed a Black student “we used to whip you.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from carrying Black Lives Matter shirts, however Confederate flag apparel is appropriate underneath the college’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

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

Joining the students 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 till college officials presented her with a letter threatening criminal trespassing fees if she was found once more on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations however had been suggested by legal professionals to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County school system seems ahead to presenting the info on this case in court,” White instructed The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Coosa Excessive close to Rome is in the heart of northwest Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District, which despatched 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 rest are multiracial or another race.

The lawsuit accuses school officers of creating “an environment the place certain viewpoints together with white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a group of scholars sought to protest the ability of their classmates to wear the Confederate flag on campus, the principal threatened pupil Deserae Turner that she might be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal also announced over the intercom that any pupil protesting and even possessing a flyer announcing the protest could be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that four Black plaintiffs who organized the protest had been suspended for 5 days, while nonblack scholar organizers were not disciplined. Legal professionals additionally 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 scholar who was not suspended has also sued.

The swimsuit says gown code guidelines permitting Accomplice flag attire however not Black Lives Matter attire are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a government agency, which also violates the First Modification. It says the district additionally has violated the students’ and parents’ proper to equal protection below the 14th Amendment, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among different remedies, the plaintiffs demand that the school district be blocked from additional punishing the scholars due to their speech, remove prior punishments from college information and pay cash damages.

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

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