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 towards their college district and its board members, accusing them of permitting an in depth sample of racism together with “overt bigotry and animosity by some white college students and academics against African American college students.”

The scholars, joined by their moms as plaintiffs, already made information when their protest at Coosa High Faculty was stifled final fall.

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday towards the Floyd County faculty district and its board members, they allege an in depth sample of racism, together with white students reenacting the homicide 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.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, but Confederate flag apparel is acceptable below the college’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black college students perpetrated by white college students and lecturers; 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.”

Joining the scholars 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 children, and detained till school officials introduced her with a letter threatening prison trespassing fees if she was discovered once more on college grounds.

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

Coosa High close to Rome is within the 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 show. About 58% are white, whereas 26% are Hispanic and the the rest are multiracial or some other race.

The lawsuit accuses school officials of creating “an atmosphere where 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 power 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 also introduced over the intercom that any scholar protesting or even possessing a flyer asserting the protest would be disciplined.

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

The suit says costume code rules allowing Confederate flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter attire are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a authorities company, which additionally violates the First Modification. It says the district also has violated the scholars’ and fogeys’ right to equal safety beneath the 14th Modification, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Amongst other cures, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from additional punishing the students because of their speech, take away prior punishments from faculty information and pay money damages.

Among the legal professionals bringing the swimsuit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer searching for the Democratic nomination for legal professional basic in Massachusetts.

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