Black leaders plan a rally to demand federal civil rights charges against six counselors who restrained a 17-year-old black youth who died at a private Carroll County school for juvenile offenders.

The rally, to take place by next month, will converge hundreds, perhaps thousands of protesters on Carroll County to demand the U.S. Department of Justice immediately bring charges in the death of Isaiah Simmons III.

The incident took place in January at the now-closed Bowling Brook Preparatory School near Taneytown, when the counselors restrained Simmons and did not call 911 until 41 minutes after he stopped breathing, according to court documents.

“We’re expecting this rally to be massive,” said Danielle Carter, Simmons’ sister. “We’ve been really building a coalition of people across the country.”

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Those considering attending, she said, include the Rev. Al Sharpton.

“We’re requesting they move now,” Carter said of the Justice Department. She quoted Baltimore NAACP President Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, who said of the Simmons case: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

State’s Attorney Jerry Barnes has said race never played a role, and the facts do not justify more serious charges.

The FBI’s investigation into the six counselors, none of whom are black, cannot make significant strides until the guards’ trial for reckless endangerment ends, said FBI spokesman Rich Wolf. The U.S. Department of Justice could not bring charges until after an FBI investigation.

The rally was originally planned to coincide with the defendants’ trials, but the two separate trials have been postponed. They were to begin in the middle of this month, but after a defendant could not attend, a judge postponed them until next spring.

The family’s previous rally in August in Baltimore had supporters such as Cheatham calling for the Maryland Attorney General’s office to investigate the Carroll County’s state’s attorney for not pursuing felony manslaughter charges.

msilvestri@baltimoreexaminer.com