Georgia students sue over blocked protest against insurgent flag

ATLANTA (AP) — A number of Black college students who have been 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 permitting an in depth sample of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white students and lecturers in opposition to African American college students.”

The scholars, joined by their moms as plaintiffs, already made news when their protest at Coosa Excessive Faculty was stifled final fall.

Now, in their lawsuit filed Tuesday towards the Floyd County faculty district and its board members, they allege an intensive sample of racism, together with white college 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 advised a Black scholar “we used to whip you.”

They also allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, but Accomplice flag attire is appropriate under the varsity’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

The swimsuit faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity towards 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 policies to the detriment of Black students.”

Becoming a member of the scholars as plaintiffs are their mothers, Lekisha Turner and Jessica Murray. Murray claims she was pulled over by a police officer after choosing up the suspended children, and detained until faculty officers offered her with a letter threatening criminal trespassing expenses if she was found again on college grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday said the district disputes the allegations however had been advised by legal professionals to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County school system appears to be like ahead to presenting the details on this case in court docket,” White instructed The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa Excessive 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 school’s more 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 school officers of creating “an atmosphere where sure viewpoints together with white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically totally different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a gaggle of scholars sought to protest the power 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 introduced over the intercom that any pupil protesting and even possessing a flyer asserting the protest would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that four Black plaintiffs who organized the protest had been suspended for five days, whereas nonblack scholar organizers were not disciplined. Legal professionals additionally 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 also sued.

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

Amongst other cures, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from further punishing the scholars due to their speech, take away prior punishments from college records and pay money damages.

Among the lawyers bringing the swimsuit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer in search of the Democratic nomination for legal professional basic in Massachusetts.

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