The parents of a fifth-grade student at an elite Los Angeles private school are suing the institution after their son was expelled for sending emails containing rap lyrics and water gun emojis to his friend.
The parents of a 10-year-old boy enrolled at the Curtis School filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking to overturn the expulsion, alleging that the school’s principal, Meera Ratnesar, unfairly disciplined their son without evidence that his exchange email violated school policy.
“(The) decision to expel (the student) and ban him from campus is arbitrary and capricious,” the lawsuit says.
‘(The school) made its decision without relying on any evidence of a violation of any school rule, and (the school) does not identify any rule of student conduct that the petitioner violated.’
Curtis School is a luxury primary school located on Mulholland Drive that costs $38,021 per year and has taught several famous students, including the children of Victoria and David Beckham.
The parents of a 10-year-old boy enrolled at Curtis School filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking to overturn his expulsion
They say the school’s principal, Meera Ratnesar (pictured), unfairly disciplined their son without evidence that their email exchange violated a school policy.
Court documents seen by DailyMail.com show the boy and his classmate exchanged emails on September 5 containing lyrics from the chorus of the 2018 rap song ‘Murder on My Mind’ by YNW Melly.
The friend said: “I wake up in the morning.” The boy replied: “I have murder on my mind.”
The guys then emailed each other the different weapons mentioned in the song, including AK-47s, MAC-11s, Glocks, and .9s.
More than two weeks later, on September 25, students were emailing each other during their first shared math class and sent each other several water gun emojis.
The lawsuit says the children attended the school’s annual fair together at the Santa Monica Pier the next day.
On Sept. 30, the boy was called into a meeting with the principal of grades 3-5 and his classroom teacher to discuss his emails, but court documents state the boy was not shown the specific emails.
The principal of grades 3-5 allegedly told him that the emails would result in the loss of his technology privileges.
Then, on October 1, the boy’s parents were summoned to a meeting with Ratnesar, who informed them that their son had been expelled and excluded from campus.
According to the lawsuit, the friend did not face any disciplinary action for the emails.
The boy’s parents said he has no history of disciplinary action in the four years he has been enrolled.
They said they asked Ratnesar to provide them with the specific policy her son violated, but she did not answer that question.
The parents also insist that the behavior is not cyberbullying since the other student did not feel threatened and they are friends.
The Curtis School Parent and Student Handbook states: “Cyberbullying is the term applied to bullying over the Internet or via email, text messaging, or similar technological modes of communication.”
“Cyberbullying includes sending or posting harmful material or engaging in other forms of social aggression.”
Pictured: Chorus lyrics from the 2018 rap song ‘Murder on My Mind’ by YNW Melly
Rapper YNW Melly (pictured), whose real name is Jamell Demons, is currently facing a retrial in Florida for the double murder of two of his friends.
DailyMail.com has contacted the family’s lawyer and the Curtis School for comment.
Rapper YNW Melly, whose real name is Jamell Demons, is currently facing a new trial in Florida for the double murder of two of his friends.
In July 2023, a mistrial was declared due to a deadlocked jury. The new trial is scheduled for September 2025, according to NBCMiami.
Demons is accused of killing his two friends Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas Jr. in October 2018, the same year his song Murder on My Mind was released, and conspiring to make the crime look like a drive-by shooting.