Georgia students sue over blocked protest towards rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black students who were suspended for attempting to protest Accomplice flag shows at their college in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to their faculty district and its board members, accusing them of allowing an in depth sample of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white students and teachers in opposition to African American college students.”

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

Now, in their lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Floyd County college district and its board members, they allege an intensive 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 appeared to be a whip and told a Black student “we used to whip you.”

They also allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, however Confederate flag attire is acceptable under the college’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

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

Becoming a member of the students 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 youngsters, and detained till college officials presented her with a letter threatening legal trespassing expenses if she was discovered once more on college grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday said the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by legal professionals to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County faculty system appears to be like forward to presenting the info on this case in court docket,” White instructed The Related Press in a cellphone interview.

Coosa High 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 school’s greater than 800 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 faculty officers of making “an environment where sure viewpoints including white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically totally different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a bunch of scholars sought to protest the flexibility of their classmates to put on the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened scholar Deserae Turner that she may very well 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 can be disciplined.

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

The swimsuit says dress code guidelines allowing Accomplice flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter apparel are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a government company, which also violates the First Modification. It says the district also has violated the students’ and fogeys’ right to equal protection underneath the 14th Modification, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Amongst other remedies, the plaintiffs demand that the college district be blocked from additional punishing the students because of their speech, remove prior punishments from school data and pay money damages.

Among the lawyers bringing the suit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer looking for the Democratic nomination for lawyer general in Massachusetts.

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