Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against insurgent flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black college students who have been suspended for attempting to protest Confederate flag displays at their school in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit against their school district and its board members, accusing them of permitting an extensive pattern of racism including “overt bigotry and animosity by some white students and teachers in opposition to African American college students.”

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

Now, in their lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Floyd County school district and its board members, they allege an in depth sample of racism, including white college students reenacting the murder of George Floyd and posting it on social media, and a pupil who carried what appeared to be a whip and informed a Black student “we used to whip you.”

They also allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, however Confederate flag attire is suitable under the varsity’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

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

Becoming a member of the scholars as plaintiffs are their moms, Lekisha Turner and Jessica Murray. Murray claims she was pulled over by a police officer after picking up the suspended youngsters, and detained till faculty officials presented her with a letter threatening prison trespassing charges if she was found once more on faculty grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations however had been suggested by attorneys to not get into specifics presently. “The Floyd County college system seems forward to presenting the facts on this case in court,” White told The Related Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa High near Rome is in 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, while 26% are Hispanic and the the remainder are multiracial or some other race.

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

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

The lawsuit alleges that four Black plaintiffs who organized the protest have been suspended for 5 days, while nonblack pupil organizers were not disciplined. Lawyers also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that students not publish on social media violated students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth pupil who was not suspended has also sued.

The suit says dress code guidelines allowing Accomplice flag apparel but 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 fogeys’ right to equal protection below the 14th Modification, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Amongst different treatments, 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 lawyers bringing the suit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer looking for the Democratic nomination for legal professional basic in Massachusetts.

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