Georgia students sue over blocked protest in opposition to rebel flag

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Black students who were suspended for attempting to protest Confederate flag shows at their school in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit against their college district and its board members, accusing them of permitting an intensive sample of racism together with “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 information when their protest at Coosa Excessive School was stifled last fall.

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

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

The suit faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward black college students perpetrated by white college students and teachers; as well as the varsity’s viewpoint discrimination in its dress code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary insurance policies to the detriment of Black college students.”

Becoming a member of the students 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 kids, and detained until school officials offered her with a letter threatening criminal trespassing costs if she was discovered once more on faculty grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday said the district disputes the allegations however had been suggested by legal professionals to not get into specifics right now. “The Floyd County faculty system seems ahead to presenting the facts on this case in courtroom,” White told 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 despatched Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress. About 10% of the varsity’s greater than 800 students in grades 8-12 are Black, state enrollment figures show. About 58% are white, while 26% are Hispanic and the the remainder are multiracial or another race.

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

When a gaggle of students sought to protest the ability of their classmates to wear the Confederate flag on campus, the principal threatened scholar Deserae Turner that she may very well be jailed for “instigating a riot,” the lawsuit says. The principal also introduced over the intercom that any pupil protesting and even possessing a flyer saying the protest can be disciplined.

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

The swimsuit says costume code guidelines permitting Confederate flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter attire are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a government agency, which also violates the First Modification. It says the district also has violated the students’ and parents’ proper to equal protection beneath the 14th Amendment, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Amongst other remedies, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from further punishing the students due to their speech, take away prior punishments from faculty records and pay money damages.

Among the attorneys bringing the go well with is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer in search of the Democratic nomination for legal professional basic in Massachusetts.

___

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