Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black students who have 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 intensive pattern of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white students and lecturers against African American students.”

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

Now, in their lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Floyd County college 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 seemed to be a whip and told a Black pupil “we used to whip you.”

They also allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, however Accomplice flag apparel is acceptable below the school’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

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

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated 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 to be ahead to presenting the information on this case in courtroom,” White advised The Related Press in a phone interview.

Coosa Excessive close to Rome is in the coronary heart of northwest Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District, which despatched Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress. About 10% of the college’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 faculty officers of making “an environment the place 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 ability of their classmates to wear the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened student 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 and 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 weren't disciplined. Lawyers additionally allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that college students not publish on social media violated students’ First Modification rights. A fifth pupil who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The swimsuit says dress code rules allowing Accomplice flag apparel however not Black Lives Matter apparel are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a authorities agency, which also violates the First Amendment. It says the district also has violated the students’ and oldsters’ proper to equal protection below the 14th Amendment, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Amongst other remedies, the plaintiffs demand that the college district be blocked from additional punishing the students due to their speech, take away prior punishments from college records and pay money damages.

Among the many attorneys 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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Observe Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.