Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — A number of Black students who were suspended for attempting to protest Accomplice flag displays at their school in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit towards their college district and its board members, accusing them of permitting an intensive pattern of racism together with “overt bigotry and animosity by some white students and lecturers in opposition to 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, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday towards the Floyd County school district and its board members, they allege an intensive sample of racism, including white college students reenacting the murder of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a pupil who carried what appeared to be a whip and informed a Black student “we used to whip you.”

In addition they allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, but Confederate flag attire is suitable underneath the varsity’s gown code, the lawsuit says.

The go well with faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity towards black students perpetrated by white college students and lecturers; in addition to the school’s viewpoint discrimination in its costume 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 picking up the suspended kids, and detained until faculty officers offered her with a letter threatening felony trespassing fees if she was found once more on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday said the district disputes the allegations however had been advised by attorneys to not get into specifics presently. “The Floyd County school system looks forward to presenting the info on this case in courtroom,” White told The Related Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa High near 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 present. About 58% are white, while 26% are Hispanic and the the remainder are multiracial or some other race.

The lawsuit accuses college officials of making “an environment where certain viewpoints together with white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a gaggle of students sought to protest the ability of their classmates to wear the Confederate flag on campus, the principal threatened pupil Deserae Turner that she could possibly be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal also introduced over the intercom that any pupil protesting or even possessing a flyer asserting the protest would be disciplined.

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

The suit says gown code rules permitting Confederate flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter attire are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a government agency, which also violates the First Amendment. It says the district also has violated the students’ and fogeys’ right to equal safety under the 14th Modification, 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 because of their speech, take away prior punishments from school records and pay cash damages.

Among the legal professionals bringing the suit 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.