Georgia students sue over blocked protest in opposition to rebel flag

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

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

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

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, however Accomplice flag apparel is acceptable underneath the varsity’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity towards black students perpetrated by white college students and lecturers; as well as 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 students 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 until college officials offered her with a letter threatening criminal trespassing costs 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 the moment. “The Floyd County faculty system appears to be like forward to presenting the facts on this situation in court,” White instructed The Associated Press in a phone interview.

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

The lawsuit accuses faculty officials of creating “an environment where certain viewpoints including white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically completely different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a gaggle of scholars sought to protest the power 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 additionally introduced over the intercom that any student protesting or even possessing a flyer asserting the protest would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest were suspended for five days, whereas nonblack student organizers were not disciplined. Lawyers also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that college students not publish on social media violated college students’ First Modification rights. A fifth scholar who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The suit says gown code rules permitting Accomplice flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter apparel are unlawful 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 protection below the 14th Modification, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among different remedies, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from additional punishing the scholars due to their speech, take away prior punishments from school data and pay cash damages.

Among the many legal professionals bringing the go well with 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.