An elite private school in Los Angeles, California has expelled a student for emailing another student a message containing emojis, according to a report.
The Curtis School is facing a lawsuit from the parents of a 10-year-old student that was expelled for sending another child lyrics to the song "Murder on My Mind" by YNW Melly. According to parents, the two children involved in the exchange are friends.
"[The] decision to expel [the student] and bar him from campus is arbitrary and capricious," said court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. "[The school] made their decision not based upon any evidence of a violation of any school rule, and [the school] do not identify any student conduct rule that Petitioner has violated."
On Sept. 5, the two boys exchanged messages containing lyrics to the song.
"Wake up in the morning I got," said one boy.
"Murder on my mind," responded the boy who was later expelled.
The boys then exchanged correspondence mentioning the firearms listed within the lyrics of the song, including AK-47s, MAC-11, Glocks and .9s.
Weeks later on Sept. 25, the boys exchanged messages containing squirt gun emojis using school laptops while both in math class.
Parents of the boys have indicated that the messages were written in jest and do not represent any legitimate conflict between the two. The boys proceeded to spend recess together on Sept. 25, and even attended the school fair at Santa Monica Pier together following their exchange.
On Oct. 1, the parents of one of the boys met with the Head of School, Meera Ratnesar, who informed them that their son would be expelled for the correspondence. Meanwhile, the other student involved faced no disciplinary action.
"We are deeply disappointed by your decision to base expulsion on emails between two classmates who both showed a willingness to talk about guns based on a song's lyrics," the parents later emailed Ratnesar.
The parents of the expelled student also pointed out that their son has no disciplinary record at the school, and that he is a straight A student, questioning which school policy their son's correspondence actually violated.
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