Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against insurgent flag

ATLANTA (AP) — A number of Black students who had been suspended for attempting to protest Confederate 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 pattern of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white students and academics in opposition to African American students.”

The students, joined by their moms as plaintiffs, already made news when their protest at Coosa Excessive School was stifled last fall.

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

They also allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, however Confederate flag attire is suitable beneath the varsity’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black college students perpetrated by white students and teachers; as well as the varsity’s viewpoint discrimination in its costume code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary 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 choosing up the suspended kids, and detained till college officials offered her with a letter threatening felony trespassing prices if she was discovered once more on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations however had been suggested by legal professionals to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County faculty system looks ahead to presenting the information on this case in court docket,” White instructed The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Coosa Excessive close to 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 show. About 58% are white, whereas 26% are Hispanic and the the rest are multiracial or some other race.

The lawsuit accuses school officers of making “an atmosphere where sure viewpoints together with 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 power of their classmates to wear the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened scholar Deserae Turner that she could 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 asserting the protest would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that four Black plaintiffs who organized the protest were suspended for five days, whereas nonblack scholar organizers weren't disciplined. Legal professionals additionally allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that students not submit on social media violated college students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth pupil who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The swimsuit says costume code rules allowing Confederate flag apparel however not Black Lives Matter apparel are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a government agency, which additionally violates the First Modification. It says the district additionally has violated the students’ and oldsters’ proper to equal safety under the 14th Amendment, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the school district be blocked from further punishing the students because of their speech, take away prior punishments from school records and pay money damages.

Among the many legal professionals bringing the go well with is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer searching for the Democratic nomination for legal professional normal in Massachusetts.

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