Georgia students sue over blocked protest towards insurgent flag

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

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

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

In addition they allege unfair punishment: Students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, but Accomplice flag attire is appropriate underneath the school’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

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

Becoming a member of the scholars 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 kids, and detained until college officials presented her with a letter threatening felony trespassing costs if she was discovered once more on faculty grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday stated the district disputes the allegations but had been advised by attorneys to not get into specifics at this time. “The Floyd County college system seems ahead to presenting the information on this situation in court docket,” White advised The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Coosa Excessive close to 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 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 another race.

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

When a bunch of scholars sought to protest the ability of their classmates to wear 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 student protesting and even possessing a flyer announcing the protest could be disciplined.

The lawsuit alleges that four Black plaintiffs who organized the protest have been suspended for five days, whereas nonblack pupil organizers weren't disciplined. Attorneys 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 scholar who was not suspended has additionally sued.

The suit says costume code guidelines allowing Accomplice flag attire but not Black Lives Matter apparel are unlawful viewpoint discrimination by a authorities agency, which additionally violates the First Amendment. It says the district additionally has violated the scholars’ and parents’ right to equal safety below the 14th Modification, in addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among different treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from additional punishing the students because of their speech, remove prior punishments from college records and pay money damages.

Among the lawyers bringing the suit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer searching for the Democratic nomination for lawyer normal in Massachusetts.

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