Featured Image Credit: FOX 5
Topics: Black Lives Matter, US News
Anish Vij
Five students and their mothers from Rome, Georgia, have filed a lawsuit against Coosa High School and the Floyd County School district for alleged racial discrimination.
The scholars, all of whom are Black, have slammed the school for allegedly violating their First Amendment and equal protection rights.
The lawsuit against the school and its district reads: "The Plaintiffs, who are African-American, challenge Coosa High's deliberate indifference to acts of racial animosity toward Black students perpetrated by white students and teachers; as well as the school's viewpoint discrimination in its dress code and the inconsistent administration of disciplinary policies to the detriment of Black students."
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The students have made an accusation of an 'egregious pattern of deliberately ignoring Plaintiff's complaints regarding repeated incidents of racial intimidation and bigotry' against the school.
One of the reported moments of alleged racism, which are detailed in the suit, suggests that a student mocked George Floyd's death by wearing a Confederate flag belt and addressed Black students as 'slaves', CNN reports.
The student, who was white, allegedly used to the n-word towards those students who were Black, the lawsuit claims.
According to the lawsuit, the dress code at the school does not prohibit any Confederate flag-themed clothing, however, all Black Lives Matter imagery is banned, Complex reports.
Students were reportedly suspended after they staged silent protests during break times.
They were told that they must not wear T-shirts that read 'I love the skin I’m in #Melanin,' which could lead to a suspension, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
"Whenever I would complain, they would say I try to make everything about race," one student told the local news station.
The student’s attorney Artur Davis said in a statement: "This case is a reminder that we are still fighting in the South over just who and what we are as a region.
"Cases like this are necessary to show how far we still need to go in the South to be one community."
According to a 2018-2019 Georgia school report, the school district is 78 percent white, seven percent black and four percent multicultural.
Superintendent Glenn White has since denied all of the allegations. He said: “Floyd County Schools looks forward to presenting the facts in court."
UNILAD has contacted Floyd County Schools for comment.
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