Georgia students sue over blocked protest against rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black college students who have been suspended for attempting to protest Accomplice flag shows at their college in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit against their school district and its board members, accusing them of permitting an in depth pattern of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white college students and lecturers towards African American students.”

The students, 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 college district and its board members, they allege an intensive sample of racism, together with white college students reenacting the murder of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a student who carried what appeared to be a whip and instructed a Black pupil “we used to whip you.”

They also allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, but Accomplice flag apparel is suitable underneath the varsity’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

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

Becoming a member of the scholars as plaintiffs are their moms, Lekisha Turner and Jessica Murray. Murray claims she was pulled over by a police officer after selecting up the suspended youngsters, and detained till school officials presented her with a letter threatening felony trespassing expenses if she was found again on college 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 faculty system seems to be ahead to presenting the details on this case in courtroom,” White instructed The Related Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa Excessive near Rome is within the heart of northwest Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District, which sent Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress. About 10% of the school’s greater 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 another race.

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

When a group of scholars sought to protest the power of their classmates to put on the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened pupil Deserae Turner that she could possibly be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal additionally announced over the intercom that any scholar protesting or even possessing a flyer asserting 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 weren't disciplined. Lawyers also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that college students not publish on social media violated students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth student who was not suspended has also sued.

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

Among other treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the school district be blocked from further punishing the students because of their speech, take away prior punishments from school data and pay cash damages.

Among the many lawyers bringing the suit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer searching for the Democratic nomination for lawyer common in Massachusetts.

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