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

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black college students who were suspended for attempting to protest Accomplice flag shows at their school in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit against 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 students and teachers towards African American students.”

The scholars, joined by their mothers as plaintiffs, already made information when their protest at Coosa Excessive Faculty was stifled last fall.

Now, in their lawsuit filed Tuesday against 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 seemed to be a whip and instructed a Black pupil “we used to whip you.”

They also allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, but Confederate flag attire is acceptable below the school’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black students perpetrated by white college students and lecturers; in addition to the college’s viewpoint discrimination in its costume code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary insurance policies to the detriment of Black students.”

Joining the scholars as plaintiffs are their mothers, Lekisha Turner and Jessica Murray. Murray claims she was pulled over by a police officer after picking up the suspended children, and detained till school officials offered her with a letter threatening felony trespassing expenses if she was found again on college grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday said the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by legal professionals to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County school system seems ahead to presenting the details on this case in court docket,” White advised The Associated Press in a cellphone 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 school’s greater than 800 college students in grades 8-12 are Black, state enrollment figures present. About 58% are white, whereas 26% are Hispanic and the the rest are multiracial or another race.

The lawsuit accuses school officials of making “an environment where 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 flexibility of their classmates to put on 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 introduced over the intercom that any scholar protesting or even possessing a flyer announcing the protest would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that four Black plaintiffs who organized the protest have been suspended for five days, whereas nonblack scholar organizers were not disciplined. Attorneys also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that students not put up on social media violated students’ First Modification rights. A fifth student who was not suspended has also sued.

The suit says dress code guidelines allowing Confederate flag attire but not Black Lives Matter attire are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a authorities agency, which also violates the First Modification. It says the district additionally has violated the students’ and fogeys’ right to equal safety below the 14th Modification, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among different remedies, the plaintiffs demand that the school district be blocked from additional punishing the students because of their speech, remove prior punishments from college records and pay money damages.

Among the legal professionals bringing the go well with is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer looking for the Democratic nomination for lawyer basic in Massachusetts.

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