The parents of a fifth grader are suing an elite Mulholland Drive private elementary school after their son was expelled over emails he exchanged with a classmate containing rap lyrics and the water gun emoji.
The parents allege that the disciplinary action was “arbitrary and capricious” and that the school provided no evidence of a policy violation or the classmate’s sense of threat. They are seeking to overturn their son’s deportation and recover their legal fees.
The petition was filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the Curtis School and school principal Meera Ratnesar, who made the decision to expel the boy. A representative for the Curtis School said the school was disappointed to learn of the litigation and could not comment on individual students.
On Sept. 5, the boy and a classmate sent emails containing lyrics to YNW Melly’s song “Murder on My Mind,” which contains references to guns and violence, according to court documents. Then, on September 25, the students had another email exchange during their math class in which the son sent messages on his school-issued laptop saying “Shut up” and “I hate you.” , sent several green water gun emojis, and then said, “You’re dead again,” to which the classmate replied, “No.” »
The parents said the 10-year-old boys were friends and hung out together during recess immediately after the Sept. 25 email exchange and also attended the school fair together at the Santa Monica Pier on the following day.
A few days later, the boy was questioned for about 10 minutes about inappropriate emails by his class principal and told he would likely lose his technology privileges at school, according to the petition.
Then, on October 1, the parents were called to a meeting with Ratnesar and informed that their son would be expelled and barred from campus. No disciplinary action was taken against the classmate who email records show was the instigator of the September 5 exchange of rap lyrics.
“We are deeply disappointed by your decision to base expulsion on emails between two classmates who both demonstrated a willingness to talk about guns based on the lyrics of a song,” the parents wrote in an October 2 email to Ratnesar, urging him to reconsider the expulsion. .
Ratnesar acknowledged in an Oct. 1 email that the classmate had started the email exchange, but said their son’s “contribution to the lyric lines in addition to continuing to communicate emojis and threatening language 20 days after the exchange of words, is a serious offense that we cannot ignore. »
The boy had attended the school for four years and had no disciplinary record before his expulsion, according to the petition, which said he was a heterosexual student. Lawyers for the parents say the student’s expulsion constitutes a harmful disruption to his education and socialization with his friends and his twin brother, who still attends the school.
The petition states that the emails do not appear to violate any school policies and that the water gun emoji is available on the school’s computer system. It further alleges that Ratnesar has a reputation for “unequal and arbitrary treatment of students” and contains, as evidence, several reviews left by former families of the school that cite allegations of favoritism and discriminatory treatment by the school director.
Curtis School is a private school that teaches developmental kindergarten through sixth grade. It has fewer than 500 students and annual tuition of about $38,000. Founded in 1925, the school is known for its rigorous curriculum and has attracted several famous students, including the children of Victoria and David Beckham.
