Black Georgia students suspended for wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts file lawsuit

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 A group of Black Georgia students who were suspended for wearing Black Lives Matter shirts have filed a federal lawsuit against a northwest Georgia schools system.

Lawyers for the students, who attend Coosa High School in Rome, said the Black students were made to turn their Black Lives Matter T-shirts inside out, while white students were allowed to carry the Confederate flag and wear belts, hoodies and hats with Confederate imagery. The group of five students and their mother filed the complaint with the U.S. District Court in Rome Tuesday. According to the lawsuit, the students were suspended in the days after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis in 2020. Floyd’s death sparked international protests. At some point, a group of Coosa High School students stood on campus waving Confederate flags and yelled racial slurs on the property. A group of Black students staged a counter protest and wore Black Lives Matter T-shirts. According to the lawsuit, the White students were not disciplined, but the Black students were suspended. The lawsuit also claims that Black students have been the subject to “repeated acts of racial intimidation and threats the school including one incident where white students reenacted the murder of George Floyd in a school hallway as well as openly racist remarks by white teachers.”

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