Georgia college students sue over blocked protest towards rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black college students who were suspended for trying to protest Confederate flag shows at their school in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to their college 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 teachers against African American college students.”

The students, joined by their moms as plaintiffs, already made information when their protest at Coosa Excessive School was stifled final fall.

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday in opposition to the Floyd County faculty district and its board members, they allege an in depth sample of racism, including white 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 informed a Black pupil “we used to whip you.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, however Accomplice flag apparel is acceptable beneath the college’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black students perpetrated by white college students and academics; as well as the varsity’s viewpoint discrimination in its dress code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary 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 picking up the suspended kids, and detained till school officers presented her with a letter threatening criminal trespassing prices if she was discovered once more on faculty grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday mentioned the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by attorneys to not get into specifics at the moment. “The Floyd County school system looks ahead to presenting the information on this case in court,” White advised The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Coosa Excessive 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 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 another race.

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

When a group of students sought to protest the ability 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 introduced over the intercom that any student protesting or even possessing a flyer announcing the protest would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest had been suspended for 5 days, whereas nonblack student organizers weren't disciplined. Lawyers also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that college students not submit on social media violated students’ First Modification rights. A fifth scholar who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The suit says dress code guidelines allowing Confederate flag attire however not Black Lives Matter apparel are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a government company, which also violates the First Amendment. It says the district additionally has violated the students’ and parents’ proper to equal protection under the 14th Amendment, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among different cures, the plaintiffs demand that the school district be blocked from additional punishing the students due to their speech, take away prior punishments from school information and pay cash damages.

Among the attorneys bringing the swimsuit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer looking for the Democratic nomination for lawyer basic in Massachusetts.

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