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

ATLANTA (AP) — A number of Black college students who have been suspended for trying to protest Confederate flag displays at their faculty in Georgia have filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to their faculty district and its board members, accusing them of allowing an intensive sample of racism together with “overt bigotry and animosity by some white college students and lecturers against African American college students.”

The students, joined by their mothers as plaintiffs, already made information when their protest at Coosa Excessive College was stifled final fall.

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

They also allege unfair punishment: College students are banned from wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, however Accomplice flag attire is appropriate beneath the varsity’s dress code, the lawsuit says.

The swimsuit faults administrators for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity towards black college students perpetrated by white students and teachers; in addition to the school’s viewpoint discrimination in its gown code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary insurance policies to the detriment of Black 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 picking up the suspended youngsters, and detained till college officers offered her with a letter threatening felony trespassing prices if she was discovered again on faculty 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 college system seems forward to presenting the details on this case in court docket,” White instructed The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Coosa High near 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 college’s greater than 800 college students in grades 8-12 are Black, state enrollment figures present. About 58% are white, while 26% are Hispanic and the the rest are multiracial or another race.

The lawsuit accuses school officers of making “an environment where certain viewpoints including white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically totally different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

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

The lawsuit alleges that 4 Black plaintiffs who organized the protest were suspended for 5 days, whereas nonblack scholar organizers weren't disciplined. Lawyers additionally allege the preemptive shutdown of the protest and calls for that college 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 rules permitting Accomplice flag apparel but not Black Lives Matter attire are illegal viewpoint discrimination by a government company, which also violates the First Modification. It says the district additionally has violated the students’ and fogeys’ proper to equal protection underneath the 14th Amendment, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among other cures, the plaintiffs demand that the varsity district be blocked from further punishing the students because of their speech, take away prior punishments from school records and pay cash damages.

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

___

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