Georgia college students sue over blocked protest towards rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black students who have been suspended for trying to protest Confederate flag displays at their school 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 students and teachers against African American students.”

The scholars, joined by their mothers as plaintiffs, already made information when their protest at Coosa Excessive College was stifled final fall.

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

They also allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, however Accomplice flag apparel is suitable under the school’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

The go well with faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black college students perpetrated by white college students and teachers; as well as the school’s viewpoint discrimination in its costume 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 selecting up the suspended kids, and detained until school officers introduced her with a letter threatening prison trespassing charges if she was discovered again on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday mentioned the district disputes the allegations however had been suggested by lawyers to not get into specifics at the moment. “The Floyd County school system appears to be like ahead to presenting the details on this situation in court,” White informed The Related Press in a phone interview.

Coosa Excessive near Rome is within 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 greater 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 faculty officials of making “an environment where sure viewpoints together with white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted but speech of an ideologically different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a gaggle of scholars sought to protest the power of their classmates to wear the Accomplice 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 scholar protesting or even possessing a flyer saying the protest would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest have been suspended for five days, whereas nonblack student organizers weren't disciplined. Attorneys also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that college students not put up on social media violated college students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth scholar who was not suspended has also sued.

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

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

Among the attorneys bringing the go well with is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney basic in Massachusetts.

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