Georgia college students sue over blocked protest against rebel flag

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

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

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

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

The go well with faults directors for “deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity towards black students perpetrated by white college students and teachers; in addition to the college’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 mothers, Lekisha Turner and Jessica Murray. Murray claims she was pulled over by a police officer after picking up the suspended kids, and detained till school officials presented her with a letter threatening criminal trespassing costs if she was found once more on school grounds.

Superintendent Glenn White on Tuesday said the district disputes the allegations however had been advised by lawyers to not get into specifics presently. “The Floyd County faculty system looks forward to presenting the details on this case in courtroom,” White advised The Associated Press in a cellphone interview.

Coosa Excessive near Rome is in the 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 show. About 58% are white, while 26% are Hispanic and the the remainder are multiracial or some other race.

The lawsuit accuses college officials of creating “an environment where certain viewpoints together with white nationalism and white supremacy are permitted however speech of an ideologically completely different viewpoint is expressly prohibited.”

When a bunch of students sought to protest the ability of their classmates to wear the Accomplice 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 scholar protesting and even possessing a flyer saying the protest could be disciplined.

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

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

Among different treatments, the plaintiffs demand that the college district be blocked from further punishing the students because of their speech, take away prior punishments from faculty data and pay cash damages.

Among the many lawyers bringing the suit is Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer seeking the Democratic nomination for legal professional common in Massachusetts.

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