A video surfaced of students at Coosa High School in Rome, GA waving a Confederate flag on campus., causing some unrest within the school. A group of students planned a protest against this. However, before they were able to make this protest happen, the school administrators suspended only the Black students who planned to participate. 

A video was filmed of 4 students at Coosa HS waving a Confederate flag on a “farm day” themed school spirit day. These students did not receive punishment for their actions. A large amount of Black, Latino, and White students spoke up about the racism. 

Students made comments about how the students who flew the flag were not punished but students who wore Black Lives Matter shirts were. The students planned the protest when there was no action taken to discipline the 4 students who flew the flag and allegedly used racial slurs against Black students. Coosa High School is reported to have a messy background with racism on campus. 

Students who were apart of the planned protest were brought into the office. They argued with administrators about the silence and lack of attention to the students who flew Confederate propaganda. Administrators sent a warning over the intercom stating that students would be punished for protesting and that there would be police on campus all day. 

Since they would be punished for encouraging unrest, students planned to silently protest by wearing Black Lives Matter shirts. Students were suspended for this, but interestingly enough, only Black students were suspended. White and Latino students reported that they caused unrest in their classes, yet they were not punished. 

I asked Justus Fitzgerald (Freshman) what she thinks about this whole situation. When asked if the suspension was based off of the race of the students Justus responded with, “Being a black student myself it’s unsettling to see this still going on.” When asked how she would feel if this situation occurred at RHS she says, “I would feel a lot more uncomfortable. Growing up and knowing your whole life that the world is against you because of your skin color and then it happens at school. It’s sickening and would make me feel very unsafe.”