Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against rebel flag

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

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

Now, of their lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Floyd County school district and its board members, they allege an intensive sample of racism, including 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 pupil “we used to whip you.”

In addition they allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from sporting Black Lives Matter shirts, however Accomplice flag apparel is acceptable beneath the college’s gown code, the lawsuit says.

The suit faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity towards black college students perpetrated by white college students and academics; in addition to the varsity’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 moms, Lekisha Turner and Jessica Murray. Murray claims she was pulled over by a police officer after choosing up the suspended youngsters, and detained until faculty officials offered her with a letter threatening prison trespassing expenses if she was discovered once more on faculty grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday mentioned the district disputes the allegations however had been suggested by lawyers to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County college system looks forward to presenting the information on this situation in court,” White instructed The Related Press in a cellphone interview.

Coosa Excessive near Rome is within the coronary heart of northwest Georgia’s conservative 14th Congressional District, which despatched 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 remainder are multiracial or some other race.

The lawsuit accuses school officials of creating “an atmosphere 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 gaggle of scholars sought to protest the ability of their classmates to put on the Accomplice flag on campus, the principal threatened pupil Deserae Turner that she could 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 asserting the protest could be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that four Black plaintiffs who organized the protest have been suspended for five days, whereas nonblack student organizers weren't disciplined. Legal professionals also allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that students not submit on social media violated college students’ First Amendment rights. A fifth student who was not suspended has also sued.

The suit says costume code rules allowing Accomplice flag attire but not Black Lives Matter attire are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a government company, which also violates the First Modification. It says the district also has violated the students’ and parents’ proper to equal protection below the 14th Modification, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other remedies, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from additional punishing the students due to their speech, remove prior punishments from college information and pay cash damages.

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

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