Georgia students sue over blocked protest in opposition to rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black college students who were suspended for making an attempt 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 permitting an in depth sample of racism together with “overt bigotry and animosity by some white students and academics against African American students.”

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

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday towards the Floyd County faculty district and its board members, they allege an intensive pattern of racism, including white college students reenacting the murder of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a student who carried what seemed to be a whip and instructed 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 apparel is appropriate below the varsity’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

The swimsuit faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black college 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 students 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 children, and detained till school officials introduced her with a letter threatening prison trespassing fees if she was found once more on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations however had been suggested by attorneys to not get into specifics right now. “The Floyd County faculty system seems to be ahead to presenting the facts on this case in court docket,” White instructed 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 despatched Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress. About 10% of the varsity’s greater than 800 college students in grades 8-12 are Black, state enrollment figures show. About 58% are white, while 26% are Hispanic and the the rest are multiracial or some other race.

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

When a bunch of students sought to protest the flexibility of their classmates to wear the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened scholar Deserae Turner that she could be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal additionally announced over the intercom that any pupil protesting or even possessing a flyer announcing the protest could be disciplined.

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

The suit says costume code rules allowing Accomplice flag apparel however not Black Lives Matter apparel are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a government agency, which additionally violates the First Modification. It says the district also has violated the students’ and oldsters’ right to equal safety underneath the 14th Amendment, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Amongst other cures, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from additional punishing the scholars due to their speech, remove prior punishments from faculty data and pay money damages.

Among the lawyers bringing the swimsuit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney general in Massachusetts.

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