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

ATLANTA (AP) — A number of Black college students who had been suspended for attempting to protest Confederate flag shows 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 sample of racism together with “overt bigotry and animosity by some white students and academics towards African American college students.”

The scholars, joined by their moms as plaintiffs, already made information when their protest at Coosa High Faculty was stifled final 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 seemed to be a whip and told a Black scholar “we used to whip you.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, but Accomplice flag attire is acceptable below the school’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

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

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday mentioned the district disputes the allegations however had been advised by lawyers to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County college system seems to be ahead to presenting the details on this situation in court,” White told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa High near Rome is within the heart of northwest Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District, which despatched Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress. About 10% of the varsity’s more than 800 college students in grades 8-12 are Black, state enrollment figures present. About 58% are white, whereas 26% are Hispanic and the the remainder are multiracial or another race.

The lawsuit accuses school officers 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 group of students sought to protest the power of their classmates to put on the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened student Deserae Turner that she could be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal also introduced over the intercom that any pupil protesting and even possessing a flyer saying the protest could be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that four Black plaintiffs who organized the protest had been suspended for 5 days, while nonblack pupil organizers were not disciplined. Attorneys also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that college students not submit on social media violated college students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth scholar who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The suit says gown code rules permitting Confederate flag apparel however not Black Lives Matter attire are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a authorities agency, which also violates the First Amendment. It says the district also has violated the scholars’ and parents’ proper to equal safety below the 14th Amendment, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from additional punishing the students because of their speech, remove prior punishments from college data and pay cash damages.

Among the attorneys bringing the swimsuit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer in search of the Democratic nomination for legal professional general in Massachusetts.

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