A privately run Atlanta public school acts as a virtual prison that subjects students to routine body searches, leaves them unprotected against violence and fails to educate them, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by, the American Civil Liberties Union.

The lawsuit targets both the Atlanta Board of Education and Community Education Partners, the private company that has a contract to run the alternative school for middle and high school students who have been expelled from regular public schools.

The ACLU contends the school violates the United States and Georgia constitutions on a number of levels including failing to provide an adequate education. The lawsuit also claims the school subjects students to unreasonable body searches.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of eight students, depicts the school as awash in violence, inflicted by students, faculty and police. The school documented 189 fights among its 415 students in 2006, according to the lawsuit. The school was responsible for nearly 68 percent of all the battery reports compiled by the 90 schools in the Atlanta Public School district.

"None of these reports reflects the violence inflicted upon students by teachers and administrators," the lawsuit said. "Teachers and at least one administrator routinely hit students, throw books and throw students against the walls or to the floor. Nor do these reports reflect the violence inflicted by school resource officers and police officers. Such officers are often physically aggressive and have a practice of using choke-holds on students."

Community Education Partners, based in Nashville, Tenn., could not be reached for comment.

Atlanta Public Schools spokesman Joe Manguno said late Tuesday he was unfamiliar with the practices or climate at the school but said it specializes in disruptive students who have been expelled multiple times.

He said the school currently has 460 students enrolled and contended many return to regular classes when their behavior improves and they catch up academically.

"We don't have the resources to educate children with these type of issues," he said. "We're not equipped to deal with them and they are disruptive to the students who are in school to learn."

The lawsuit also charges there are daily searches of all students when they arrive at school.

"They are subject to a humiliating search when they come to school — girls are forced to raise their blouses up to their necks," said Emily Chiang, a New York lawyer who helped draft the lawsuit. "They don't let students bring anything in, including books. That is why there is a no homework policy. "

Chiang also contended that not only kids with behavioral problems end up in the school. She said one of the plaintiffs, currently a 10th grader, moved to Atlanta school system last year from Blakely, Ga., where he had received Bs and Cs and never been suspended. He was prevented from enrolling in a regular school for a month because of bureaucratic delays involving his academic records and then was told he had missed too much class time and would have to enroll in the alternative school instead.

Other students got good grades before landing in the alternative school where their academic performance then deteriorated, Chiang said.

"They can end up in this a crazy situation," Chiang said. "About 30 percent of the kids have been 'administratively referred.' It seems you can be administratively referred for almost any reason."