Black students were suspended for organizing a protest against the racism experienced at Coosa High School in Rome, Georgia. The protest was planned as a response to a video of four white students waving a confederate flag on campus and using racial slurs during a “farm day”-themed school spirit day. Only the Black students involved in organizing the protest were suspended, students told CBS. The two white students involved in planning the protest faced no repercussions. Not only that, but the students who carried the confederate flag have yet to be reprimanded.
“I feel the Confederate flag should not be flown at all. It is a racist symbol and it makes me feel disrespected,” student organizer Jaylynn Murray told WGCL-TV. Another Black student told CBS that the school did not reprimand the students carrying the flag, yet they have a policy banning Black Lives Matter apparel.
Read about the removal of confederate monuments here.
Coosa High School announced to their students over the intercom that they knew that a demonstration was due to take place. “Police will be present here at school and if students insist on encouraging this kind of activity they will be disciplined for encouraging unrest.”
In Floyd County, which includes Coosa High School, 8 percent of Black students were suspended. It is the highest percentage of any race, as reported by CBS. The county counts 70 percent of white people, 14 percent of Black people and around 8 percent of Hispanic people, according to county data.