The parents of a fifth-grader at a prestigious private school in Los Angeles are suing the institution and its director following their son’s expulsion for sending an email to another student that had rap lyrics and squirt gun emojis.
The lawsuit filed last Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court claims that the kid was unfairly reprimanded by the school’s head, Meera Ratnesar, “without evidence that his email exchange broke a school policy.” The lawsuit now aims to have the kid’s expulsion from Curtis School reversed and demands the payment of the boys’ legal bills.
According to the lawsuit acquired by Fox11, “[the] decision to expel [the student] and bar him from campus is arbitrary and capricious.” There was also a copy of a letter that Ratnesar had sent to the boy’s parents.
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According to court records, on September 5, the boy and another student exchanged emails that included the chorus to the 2018 YNW Melly rap song “Murder on My Mind.”
The other student, who was also in fifth grade, wrote, “Wake up in the morning I got,” to which the boy replied, “Murder on my mind.”
During their common first-period math class, more than two weeks later, the kids emailed one another again and included multiple squirt gun emojis.
During that exchange, the petitioner also used the words “I hate you” and “You dead yet.”
The petition claims that “the emails between the two friends do not appear to violate any student conduct rule and the squirt gun emoji is available on the Curtis School’s IT system that is used by the students.” It also claims that the second boy started the conversation based on the lyrics of the song in the previous email exchange, but he has not received any similar punishment.
The director called the boy and his homeroom teacher into a meeting on September 30 to talk about his emails, but according to court filings, the boy was not shown the exact emails.
The petition claims that Ratnesar contacted the boy’s parents and informed them that he was expelled and would not be allowed to return to campus.
According to the LA Times, the petition stated that the youngster was a straight-A student who had been enrolled in the school for four years and had no disciplinary record before being expelled. Attorneys for the parents contend that the student’s expulsion will negatively impact his schooling and interaction with his identical twin and classmates, who are still enrolled in the school.
The petition claims that the squirt gun emoji is accessible on the school’s IT system and that the emails don’t seem to break any rules. It further claims that Ratnesar has a reputation for “unequal and arbitrary treatment of students” and provides reviews written by previous families about the school head’s alleged discriminatory treatment.
Curtis School, which serves grades K through 6, is located on Mulholland Drive. The Hollywood Reporter reports that tuition costs $28,760.
Children of famous people, such as Victoria and David Beckham, have attended the school.
