The mother of a fifth grade student at a private Mulholland Drive school, who wants to stop the possible expulsion of her son, should have her claims heard by an arbitrator rather than a judge, according to new court papers brought by the school’s attorneys.
The mother and her son had won a round in court when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen I. Goorvitch ruled last month that no expulsion will take place pending a trial on the merits of the case, which involved the fallout from an email dialog between the petitioner’s son with another student that included several squirt gun emojis.
The student is identified only as John Doe in the 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 Nov. 15, the school’s lawyers filed court papers arguing that the boy’s mother is obligated to arbitrate her son’s claims according to the terms of her son’s February enrollment agreement.
“Petitioner’s claims in this matter fit squarely within the terms of the arbitration agreement,” according to the school’s attorneys’ pleadings.
The boy’s mother “can hardly claim surprise, as each iteration of the enrollment agreement contained a simple, clear agreement to arbitrate all claims related to the student’s enrollment at the school,” the school’s lawyers further argue in their court papers.
A hearing on the arbitration motion is scheduled Dec. 11, the same date the trial of the case is set.
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.”
Curtis School is a K-6 learning institution.