Georgia college students sue over blocked protest towards rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — A number of Black college students who were suspended for making an attempt to protest Accomplice flag displays 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 pattern of racism together with “overt bigotry and animosity by some white college students and teachers in opposition to African American students.”

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

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

They also allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from carrying Black Lives Matter shirts, but Accomplice flag attire is acceptable underneath the college’s gown code, the lawsuit says.

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

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday mentioned the district disputes the allegations however had been advised by attorneys to not get into specifics at the moment. “The Floyd County school system seems ahead to presenting the facts on this case in courtroom,” White advised The Related Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa High near Rome is in the coronary heart of northwest Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District, which despatched Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress. About 10% of the college’s greater than 800 college 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 environment the place certain viewpoints together with white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically totally 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 student Deserae Turner that she may very well be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal also introduced over the intercom that any scholar 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 five days, whereas nonblack student organizers were not disciplined. Lawyers also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that students not put up on social media violated students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth pupil who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The swimsuit says dress code guidelines permitting Confederate flag apparel however not Black Lives Matter attire are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a authorities company, which also violates the First Modification. It says the district also has violated the scholars’ and fogeys’ proper to equal protection under the 14th Amendment, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Amongst other treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from further punishing the scholars due to their speech, remove prior punishments from college information and pay cash damages.

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

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