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

ATLANTA (AP) — A number of Black college students who have been suspended for making an attempt to protest Accomplice flag displays at their faculty in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit against their college district and its board members, accusing them of permitting an intensive pattern of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white college students and lecturers in opposition to African American students.”

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

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

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, however Confederate flag attire is suitable under the school’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black college students perpetrated by white college students and academics; as well as the college’s viewpoint discrimination in its dress code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary policies to the detriment of Black 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 picking up the suspended children, and detained till college officials introduced her with a letter threatening legal trespassing expenses if she was found again on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations however had been advised by legal professionals to not get into specifics at the moment. “The Floyd County school system looks ahead to presenting the facts on this case in court docket,” White informed The Related Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa High near Rome is within the coronary heart of northwest Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District, which sent 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 rest are multiracial or some other race.

The lawsuit accuses college officers of making “an environment where certain viewpoints together with white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a bunch of scholars sought to protest the power of their classmates to wear the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened pupil Deserae Turner that she could possibly be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal additionally introduced over the intercom that any scholar protesting and even possessing a flyer asserting the protest could be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest have been suspended for 5 days, while nonblack scholar organizers weren't disciplined. Attorneys also 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 also sued.

The go well with says dress code guidelines permitting Confederate flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter attire are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a government agency, which additionally violates the First Amendment. It says the district additionally has violated the scholars’ and oldsters’ proper to equal protection below the 14th Amendment, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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

Among the legal professionals bringing the go well with 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.