Judge halts 5th grader’s expulsion over rap lyrics, gun emoji

A judge has ruled that an elite Mulholland Drive private school must reverse the expulsion of a 5th grade student through emails sent to a colleague containing rap lyrics and the gun emoji until the case can be heard at trial.

On October 17, the expelled student’s parents filed a lawsuit against the Curtis school and Head of School Meera Ratnesar, claiming the expulsion was “arbitrary and capricious” and that the school provided no evidence of a policy violation or a classmate feeling – was threatened.

This week, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen I. Goorvitch approved an order filed by the parent’s attorneys to temporarily halt the boy’s deportation, according to court papers filed Thursday. Attorneys argued the expulsion was a harmful disruption to the student’s education and socialization, according to court documents.

The judge’s order went into effect immediately, and the student was free to return to school Friday, according to court documents. But the decision can be reconsidered if evidence emerges that the student poses a danger to students or teachers, and the school remains free to impose alternative disciplinary measures, according to court documents.

The Curtis School is a prestigious elementary school with an annual tuition of $38,000, where many celebrities, such as Victoria and David Beckham, have sent their children.

School representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the order. In a statement released last week, the school said it was disappointed by the litigation and was committed to ensuring a safe and secure campus for all, but declined to comment on individual students.

The student was expelled from Ratnesar on Oct. 1 over two email exchanges with a classmate.

On Sept. 5, the boy and a classmate sent emails back and forth that contained lyrics from the YNW Melly song “Murder on My Mind,” which references guns and violence, according to court documents. Then, on September 25, the students engaged in another email exchange during maths class in which the boy sent messages on his school laptop saying: “Shut up” and “I hate you” and included several green gun emojis and then said, “You’re dead yet,” to which the classmate replied, “No, yeah.”

The parents claim the boys are friends and hung out together immediately after the email exchanges, according to court documents. They also say their son is a straight student who has faced no prior disciplinary action during his three years at the school, according to court documents.

No disciplinary action was taken against the classmate, who, according to email records, instigated the Sept. 5 exchange of rap lyrics.

“We are deeply disappointed by your decision to base the expulsion on emails between two classmates who both expressed their desire to talk about guns based on the lyrics of a song,” the parents wrote in an email on 2 October to Ratnesar, urging her to reconsider the expulsion. .

Ratnesar acknowledged in an Oct. 1 email that the classmate started the email exchange, but said their son’s “contribution of lyrics in addition to continuing to communicate emojis and threatening language to 20 days after the exchange of lyrics, is a serious offense that we cannot ignore. “

Lawyers for the parents say Ratnesar has a reputation for “unequal and arbitrary treatment of students” and point to as evidence several reviews left by former families at the school discussing alleged favoritism and discriminatory treatment by the head of school.