Georgia students sue over blocked protest in opposition to insurgent flag

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

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

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday in opposition to the Floyd County school district and its board members, they allege an in depth pattern of racism, together with white college students reenacting the homicide of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a pupil who carried what seemed to be a whip and advised a Black scholar “we used to whip you.”

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

The swimsuit faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity towards black students perpetrated by white college students and lecturers; as well as the college’s viewpoint discrimination in its gown 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 choosing up the suspended kids, and detained until school officers presented her with a letter threatening prison trespassing expenses if she was found again on college grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday mentioned the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by attorneys to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County school system seems ahead to presenting the details on this situation in court,” White informed The Related Press in a phone interview.

Coosa High 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 varsity’s more 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 another race.

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

When a group of students sought to protest the flexibility of their classmates to wear the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened scholar Deserae Turner that she may very well 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 had been suspended for 5 days, while nonblack student organizers were not disciplined. Lawyers additionally allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that students not publish on social media violated college students’ First Modification rights. A fifth pupil who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The swimsuit says dress code rules allowing Accomplice flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter attire are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a authorities agency, which additionally violates the First Amendment. It says the district additionally has violated the students’ and oldsters’ proper to equal safety beneath the 14th Modification, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other remedies, the plaintiffs demand that the college district be blocked from additional punishing the scholars due to their speech, remove prior punishments from college records and pay money damages.

Among the attorneys bringing the go well with is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer seeking the Democratic nomination for legal professional common in Massachusetts.

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