Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black college students who were suspended for making an attempt to protest Accomplice flag shows at their college in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to their college district and its board members, accusing them of allowing an in depth pattern of racism together with “overt bigotry and animosity by some white students and academics against African American students.”

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

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday towards the Floyd County school district and its board members, they allege an extensive sample 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 told a Black pupil “we used to whip you.”

In addition they allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from carrying Black Lives Matter shirts, however Accomplice flag attire is appropriate beneath the college’s gown code, the lawsuit says.

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

Joining the students 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 kids, and detained till school officers offered her with a letter threatening criminal trespassing charges if she was discovered again on faculty grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday said the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by attorneys to not get into specifics presently. “The Floyd County faculty system seems to be forward to presenting the facts on this example in courtroom,” White advised The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Coosa High 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 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 another race.

The lawsuit accuses college officers of creating “an atmosphere the place certain viewpoints including white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted but speech of an ideologically different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a gaggle of students sought to protest the ability of their classmates to put on the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened scholar Deserae Turner that she might be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal additionally announced over the intercom that any student protesting or even possessing a flyer announcing the protest can be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that four Black plaintiffs who organized the protest were suspended for five days, while nonblack student organizers were not disciplined. Attorneys also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that college students not put up on social media violated college students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth pupil who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The go well with says gown code guidelines allowing Accomplice flag apparel however not Black Lives Matter apparel are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a authorities agency, which also violates the First Amendment. It says the district additionally has violated the scholars’ and oldsters’ proper to equal safety beneath the 14th Modification, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the school district be blocked from further punishing the scholars because of their speech, remove prior punishments from faculty information and pay cash damages.

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

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