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

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

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

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday towards the Floyd County faculty district and its board members, they allege an extensive pattern of racism, including white students reenacting the homicide of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a scholar who carried what appeared 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 suitable beneath the school’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

The swimsuit faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black college students perpetrated by white students and teachers; as well as the varsity’s viewpoint discrimination in its costume code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary policies to the detriment of Black 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 until college officers offered her with a letter threatening felony trespassing costs if she was discovered again on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations however had been advised by attorneys to not get into specifics right now. “The Floyd County faculty system looks ahead to presenting the info on this case in court,” White instructed The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa Excessive 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 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 remainder are multiracial or some other race.

The lawsuit accuses school officers of making “an environment the place sure viewpoints together with white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted but speech of an ideologically totally different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a gaggle of scholars 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 possibly be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal also announced over the intercom that any pupil protesting or even possessing a flyer announcing the protest would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest had been suspended for 5 days, whereas nonblack student organizers were not disciplined. Legal professionals additionally allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that college students not submit on social media violated college students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth pupil who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The swimsuit says dress code guidelines permitting Confederate flag attire however not Black Lives Matter apparel are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a government company, which also violates the First Amendment. It says the district also has violated the students’ and parents’ proper to equal safety below the 14th Amendment, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among different cures, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from additional punishing the students because of their speech, remove prior punishments from faculty information and pay cash damages.

Among the many legal professionals bringing the swimsuit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer looking for the Democratic nomination for lawyer general in Massachusetts.

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