Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against rebel flag

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

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

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

In addition they allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, however Accomplice flag apparel is suitable beneath the varsity’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

The swimsuit faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black college students perpetrated by white college students and teachers; in addition to the varsity’s viewpoint discrimination in its costume 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 picking up the suspended children, and detained till college officials introduced her with a letter threatening criminal trespassing fees if she was found again on faculty grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday said the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by legal professionals to not get into specifics at the moment. “The Floyd County faculty system appears forward to presenting the facts on this case in court,” White advised The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa Excessive near Rome is in the coronary heart of northwest Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District, which despatched Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress. About 10% of the school’s more than 800 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 faculty officials of making “an atmosphere the place certain viewpoints including white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted but speech of an ideologically completely different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a bunch of scholars sought to protest the ability of their classmates to put on the Confederate flag on campus, the principal threatened pupil Deserae Turner that she could 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 could be disciplined.

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

The suit says dress code rules allowing Accomplice flag attire however not Black Lives Matter attire are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a authorities agency, which also violates the First Amendment. It says the district additionally has violated the students’ and oldsters’ right to equal protection below the 14th Modification, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other remedies, the plaintiffs demand that the college district be blocked from additional punishing the students due to their speech, take away prior punishments from faculty data and pay cash damages.

Among the lawyers bringing the go well with is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer in search of the Democratic nomination for attorney normal in Massachusetts.

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