Georgia college students sue over blocked protest in opposition to rebel flag

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

The students, joined by their moms as plaintiffs, already made information 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 in depth pattern of racism, together with white students reenacting the homicide of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a student who carried what gave the impression to be a whip and informed a Black pupil “we used to whip you.”

They also allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, but Accomplice flag apparel is appropriate underneath the school’s dress 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 varsity’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 selecting up the suspended kids, and detained until faculty officers introduced her with a letter threatening felony trespassing fees if she was found once more on faculty grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations but had been suggested by lawyers to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County school system seems to be forward to presenting the information on this situation in court docket,” White informed The Associated Press in a telephone 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 school’s more than 800 students in grades 8-12 are Black, state enrollment figures show. About 58% are white, whereas 26% are Hispanic and the the remainder are multiracial or some other race.

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

When a bunch of students sought to protest the ability of their classmates to wear the Confederate flag on campus, the principal threatened scholar 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 asserting the protest can be disciplined.

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

The swimsuit says dress code guidelines permitting Accomplice flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter attire are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a authorities company, which additionally violates the First Modification. It says the district additionally has violated the students’ and parents’ right to equal protection under the 14th Modification, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other cures, the plaintiffs demand that the college district be blocked from further punishing the students due to their speech, remove prior punishments from college information and pay money damages.

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

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