Judge Halts Expulsion Of Fifth Grader Over Emojis Until Trial

LOS ANGELES, CA The mother of a fifth grade student at a private Mulholland Drive school won a round in court when a judge directed the institution and its director to not expel the woman's son for now in a dispute over an email dialog with another pupil that included several squirt gun emojis.

The student petitioner is identified only as John Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court legal action filed against Curtis School and Head of School Meera Ratnesar. The petition asks that the school be stopped from taking any "adverse action" against the boy and that his attorneys' fees be paid.

On Thursday, Judge Stephen I. Goorvitch ruled that no expulsion will take place pending a trial on the merits of the case.

"This order shall not prevent the Curtis School from imposing any other discipline or taking any steps necessary to manage petitioner's behavior at school," according to a minute order issued by the judge's clerk.

The judge scheduled a hearing on Dec. 11 to set a trial date and also to hear Curtis School's motion to have the case's issues decided by an arbitrator rather than a judge.

According to the petition filed Oct. 17, the second boy also is in the fifth grade and the email exchange at issue occurred while they were in their math class. According to the chain, which is included within the petition, the interaction began when the second boy said, "Hi" and the petitioner replied, "Shut up."

The petitioner also said, "I hate you" and "You dead yet" during the interaction, according to the petition, which also includes multiple squirt gun emojis sent by the petitioner.

"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," according to the petition, which further states that no similar discipline has been imposed on the second boy even though he started the discussion based on the song's lyrics in the earlier email exchange.

After the math class, the two boys walked to their next class and interacted for the rest of the day, then the next day went to the Santa Monica Pier together for the annual school fair, according to the petition.

However, on a subsequent day the petitioner was interviewed for about 10 minutes about the emails by his director of grades with his homeroom teacher also present, the petition states. Not long thereafter Ratnesar, who had not spoken to the petitioner, met with his parents and told them her final decision was to expel their son and that he was immediately barred from campus, the petition states.

The petition was brought on the boy's behalf not only for his own interest, but to protect the rights of other students and families subject to "arbitrary and capricious disciplinary action in K-12 schools," according to the court papers.

A copy of a letter written by Ratnesar to the boy's parents is attached to the legal action in which Ratnesar says the September email exchange between the boys was preceded about 20 days earlier by another discussion the two had on the lyrics of the YNW Melly song "Murder on My Mind."

Defense attorneys also included a sworn declaration by Ratnesar in their court papers. "I was shocked when I saw these email communications," Ratnesar said. "As a head of school for nine years and in my 20 years experience as an educator, I have never witnessed a student send another student communications containing a gun emoji or telling another student, `You dead yet."'

Ratnesar said the petitioner also told the other boy, "I hate you" and "shut up" in response to the second boy merely saying "Hi."

"I cannot ignore direct gun-related threats or threatening language, even when they are made by elementary school student," Ratnesar says.

Curtis School is a K-6 learning institution.

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