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

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

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

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday in opposition to the Floyd County faculty district and its board members, they allege an extensive sample of racism, including white college students reenacting the homicide 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 scholar “we used to whip you.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, but Confederate flag apparel is appropriate underneath the college’s gown 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 teachers; 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 choosing up the suspended youngsters, and detained until school officers offered her with a letter threatening legal trespassing costs if she was discovered once more on faculty grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by lawyers to not get into specifics at the moment. “The Floyd County school system appears to be like ahead to presenting the info on this case in courtroom,” White instructed The Related Press in a phone 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 college’s more than 800 students in grades 8-12 are Black, state enrollment figures present. About 58% are white, whereas 26% are Hispanic and the the remainder are multiracial or some other race.

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

When a group of scholars sought to protest the power of their classmates to put on the Confederate 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 announced over the intercom that any student protesting and even possessing a flyer asserting the protest could be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest were suspended for 5 days, whereas nonblack student organizers weren't disciplined. Lawyers also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that students not post on social media violated students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth pupil who was not suspended has also sued.

The suit says dress code rules permitting Confederate flag attire however not Black Lives Matter attire are illegal 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 protection under the 14th Amendment, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other cures, the plaintiffs demand that the college district be blocked from further punishing the scholars due to their speech, remove prior punishments from faculty information and pay cash damages.

Among the many attorneys bringing the suit 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.