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

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

The students, joined by their moms as plaintiffs, already made news when their protest at Coosa High School was stifled last fall.

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Floyd County school district and its board members, they allege an extensive sample of racism, including white 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 instructed a Black scholar “we used to whip you.”

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, however Confederate flag apparel is appropriate below the varsity’s gown code, the lawsuit says.

The go well with faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black college students perpetrated by white students and teachers; as well as the school’s viewpoint discrimination in its dress code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary insurance 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 children, and detained till college officials introduced her with a letter threatening criminal trespassing prices if she was discovered again on faculty grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday said the district disputes the allegations however had been advised by legal professionals to not get into specifics presently. “The Floyd County faculty system appears to be like forward to presenting the information on this case in court,” White told The Associated Press in a phone 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 school’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 another race.

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

When a group 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 may very well 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 would be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that four Black plaintiffs who organized the protest had been suspended for five days, whereas nonblack scholar organizers weren't disciplined. Lawyers additionally allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and demands that students not put up on social media violated college students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth scholar who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The go well with says costume code guidelines permitting Accomplice flag apparel however not Black Lives Matter attire are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a authorities agency, which also violates the First Amendment. It says the district additionally has violated the students’ and oldsters’ right to equal protection underneath the 14th Amendment, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Amongst other treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from additional punishing the students due to their speech, take away prior punishments from college information and pay money damages.

Among the many legal professionals bringing the suit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney common in Massachusetts.

___

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