Georgia college students sue over blocked protest in opposition to insurgent flag

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

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

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

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, but Accomplice flag attire is acceptable underneath the college’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

The go well with faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black students perpetrated by white students and teachers; as well as the school’s viewpoint discrimination in its gown code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary policies to the detriment of Black college 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 choosing up the suspended youngsters, and detained till college officials presented her with a letter threatening criminal trespassing expenses if she was found again on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday said the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by attorneys to not get into specifics at the moment. “The Floyd County faculty system looks forward to presenting the facts on this case in court docket,” White advised The Related Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa High near 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 more 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 another race.

The lawsuit accuses college officers of making “an atmosphere the place sure viewpoints together with white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically completely different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

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

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

The swimsuit says costume code rules allowing Confederate flag attire but not Black Lives Matter apparel are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a authorities company, which also violates the First Modification. It says the district additionally has violated the scholars’ and parents’ right to equal safety below the 14th Modification, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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

Among the many attorneys bringing the suit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer in search of the Democratic nomination for attorney normal in Massachusetts.

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