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

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black students who had been suspended for trying to protest Accomplice 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 intensive sample of racism together with “overt bigotry and animosity by some white students and lecturers towards African American students.”

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

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

Additionally they allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, however Accomplice flag attire is acceptable below the school’s costume code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black students perpetrated by white students and teachers; in addition to the college’s viewpoint discrimination in its dress 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 selecting up the suspended children, and detained till college officials presented her with a letter threatening legal trespassing expenses if she was found again on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by lawyers to not get into specifics at the moment. “The Floyd County faculty system seems ahead to presenting the details on this case in court,” White advised The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Coosa Excessive 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 college students in grades 8-12 are Black, state enrollment figures present. About 58% are white, whereas 26% are Hispanic and the the rest are multiracial or some other race.

The lawsuit accuses faculty officers of creating “an atmosphere where sure viewpoints including white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted but speech of an ideologically different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a gaggle of scholars sought to protest the flexibility of their classmates to wear the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened pupil Deserae Turner that she might be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal also announced over the intercom that any student protesting and even possessing a flyer announcing the protest can be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest have been suspended for five days, while nonblack pupil organizers were not disciplined. Lawyers additionally allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that college students not submit on social media violated students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth pupil who was not suspended has also sued.

The go well with says gown code guidelines permitting Accomplice flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter attire are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a authorities agency, which also violates the First Modification. It says the district also has violated the students’ and parents’ right to equal protection underneath the 14th Amendment, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other cures, the plaintiffs demand that the school district be blocked from further punishing the students because of their speech, remove prior punishments from school data and pay money damages.

Among the attorneys bringing the go well with is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer searching for the Democratic nomination for lawyer general in Massachusetts.

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