Parents Seek to Stop Expulsion Of Fifth Grader Over Squirt Gun Emojis

LOS ANGELES, CA — The mother of a fifth grade student at a private Mulholland Drive school has taken the institution and its director to court to try and prevent her son from being expelled 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 Thursday 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.

A school representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment. However, a copy of a letter written by Ratnesar to the boy's parents is attached to the legal action. In the letter, Ratnesar acknowledges that 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.

However, the petitioner's "contribution of lyric lines in addition to continuing to communicate threatening emojis and language 20 days after the lyric exchange is a serious infraction that we cannot ignore," Ratnesar says. "The decision remains that we will support transition to another school."

According to the suit filed Thursday, the second boy also is 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.

Curtis School is a K-6 learning institution.

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