Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against insurgent flag

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

The students, joined by their moms as plaintiffs, already made news when their protest at Coosa High College was stifled last 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 students reenacting the homicide of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a student who carried what seemed to be a whip and instructed a Black student “we used to whip you.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, but Confederate flag attire is appropriate beneath the school’s gown code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black students perpetrated by white students and lecturers; as well as the school’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 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 officers introduced her with a letter threatening legal trespassing costs if she was discovered again on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday mentioned the district disputes the allegations however had been advised by lawyers to not get into specifics at the moment. “The Floyd County school system seems to be forward to presenting the info on this situation in court docket,” White advised The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa High near Rome is within the heart of northwest Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District, which sent 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 present. About 58% are white, while 26% are Hispanic and the the rest are multiracial or another race.

The lawsuit accuses faculty officers of creating “an atmosphere where sure 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 flexibility of their classmates to wear the Confederate flag on campus, the principal threatened scholar Deserae Turner that she might be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal also announced over the intercom that any pupil protesting and even possessing a flyer asserting the protest would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest had been suspended for five days, while nonblack scholar organizers weren't disciplined. Legal professionals additionally allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that students not post on social media violated students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth pupil who was not suspended has additionally sued.

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

Among other treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the college district be blocked from additional punishing the scholars because of their speech, take away prior punishments from school information and pay cash damages.

Among the many legal professionals bringing the swimsuit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer in search of the Democratic nomination for lawyer normal in Massachusetts.

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