West
California prestigious private school sued after expelling boy, 10, for using squirt gun emoji, rap lyrics
A fifth-grader has been expelled from one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious private schools for sending a friend a squirt gun emoji and rap lyrics, prompting a lawsuit from the boy’s parents.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court came after the 10-year-old was expelled from the Curtis School for an email exchange with his friend containing squirt gun emojis and the lyrics to the YNW Melly rap song “Murder on My Mind.”
The Curtis School is an elite private independent elementary school in Los Angeles and has taught children of celebrities, including David and Victoria Beckham. The elementary school, according to The Hollywood Reporter, costs $28,760 per year.
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Interior of classroom in elementary school. Row of empty desks are in illuminated room. (iStock)
The lawsuit, obtained by KKTV, alleges that the Head of School Meera Ratnesar unfairly disciplined the boy “without evidence that his email exchange broke a school policy.”
The parents of the 10-year-old seek to reverse the expulsion of the 10-year-old boy from the Curtis School along with paying the family’s attorneys’ fees.
“[The] decision to expel [the student] and bar him from campus is arbitrary and capricious,” the lawsuit said.
The boy’s parents are suing, saying the decision to expel their son from the about $29,000-per-year school was “arbitrary and capricious.” (Google Maps – Screenshot)
The documents state that the boys exchanged lyrics from the 2018 rap song, “Murder on my mind” on Sept. 8.
The friend, also in the fifth grade, said, “Wake up in the morning I got.” The boy responded, “Murder on my mind.”
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Over two weeks later, on Sept. 25, the students were emailing each other during their shared first period math class and sent several squirt gun emojis.
A school bus arrives at George Mason Elementary School in Alexandria, VA on August 21, 2023. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
On September 30, the boy was called into a meeting with the director and his homeroom teacher to discuss the emails, but the court documents claim the boy was not shown the specific emails.
Ratnesar met with the boy’s parents and told them he was expelled and immediately barred from campus.
The school sent out the following statement to local media outlets:
“While we were disappointed to learn about the litigation, our priority is to ensure a safe and secure campus for all of our students,” the statement said. “We are unable to comment on individual students.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Curtis School for comment.
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San Francisco, CA
San Mateo supervisor urges CDC to step up protections amid hantavirus outbreak
(KRON)– San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa is asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to step up protections at ports and Airports across the country, including San Francisco International Airport (SFO), after the recent hantavirus outbreak.
The outbreak began aboard a cruise ship in May 2026.
The ship outbreak has reached 12 cases, nine of which have been confirmed. So far, three people have died.
In California, five people, including one Santa Clara County resident, are being monitored for possible exposure. Another Bay Area resident is being monitored separately in Nebraska.
In the U.S., the CDC is monitoring 41 people for Hantavirus. That includes an additional 16 who were not aboard the cruise ship where the outbreak began, but were exposed on an April flight from Johannesburg with a woman who was infected on the ship and later died.
Canepa is fighting for concrete policies that would protect Californians, specifically calling out the CDC to create a clear process when outbreaks, similar to the recent hantavirus outbreak, begin.
Along with the CDC, the World Health Organization is emphasizing that the overall risk to the public remains low. So far, there’s been no evidence of ongoing transmission.
Denver, CO
Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic finishes 2nd in MVP voting; Shai Gilgeous-Alexander repeats
Two of the top three players in the NBA will face each other Monday. The other, according to MVP voters, will be watching from the couch.
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic finished in second place in the 2025-26 MVP vote, the league announced Sunday night. In what was widely regarded as a three-horse race, Jokic was a distant runner-up but extended his streak of top-two finishes to six consecutive years, joining Bill Russell and Larry Bird as the only players to do so.
Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was crowned MVP for the second straight season. San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama, just 22 years old, placed third. He was also named Defensive Player of the Year last month. The Spurs and Thunder are set to compete in the Western Conference Finals starting Monday night.
The award is decided by a panel of 100 voters who cover the NBA and its teams for various local, national and international media outlets. Jokic appeared on all 100 ballots, earning 10 first-place votes and 48 second-place nods. He was third on 37 ballots, fourth on four, fifth on one.
Gilgeous-Alexander received the lion’s share of the first-place votes with 83. Wembanyama got five votes for first. Ballots are submitted before the playoffs begin, ensuring that only the regular season is taken into account — meaning that Denver’s first-round exit had no bearing on the tally this year.
Jokic averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists per game, marking the seventh time in NBA history that a player has averaged a triple-double. Jokic, Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson are the only players to accomplish the feat. Jokic has done it two seasons in a row.
He shot 56.9% from the field, 38% from 3-point range and 83.1% from the foul line, good for a 67% true shooting clip that ranked fifth in the league. At 66.5%, Gilgeous-Alexander was the only non-center to rank in the top eight. He averaged 31.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.6 assists for the defending champion and first-place Thunder.
Jokic’s season was split in two parts by a knee injury he suffered on Dec. 29, 2025, in Miami. Before he limped off the court with a bone bruise, he was averaging 29.6 points on 67% shooting inside the arc and 43.5% shooting outside it. After he returned a month later, his scoring dropped to 25.8 points per game at a 60.3% clip from 2-point range and an inefficient 31.9% mark from deep.
His shooting splits were even worse in the playoffs — 55.3% from two, 19.4% from three as the Timberwolves eliminated Denver in six games. The Serbian big man struggled to contend with four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert for most of the series. The Nuggets failed to advance to the second round for the first time since 2022.
Jokic has won three regular-season MVPs in his career, in addition to NBA Finals MVP in 2023 when he led Denver to its first championship. He’s eligible to sign a contract extension this summer.
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Seattle, WA
Caitlin Clark’s stats today in Indiana Fever vs Seattle Storm
Brian Ray describes the process of photographing Caitlin Clark
Iowa director of photography Brian Ray describes how he captured Caitlin Clark’s deep 3-pointer during the Indiana Fever’s game at Carver-Hawkeye in 2025.
Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever continued their 2026 WNBA regular season with an 89-78 victory against the Seattle Storm on Sunday, May 17.
Clark, a former Iowa women’s basketball star, and the Fever are 2-2 after the first four games of the regular season.
Here’s a look at how Clark fared in Sunday’s game in Indianapolis:
Caitlin Clark stats today in Indiana Fever vs Seattle Storm
- Minutes: 23
- Points: 21
- Rebounds: 7
- Assists: 10
- Blocks: 2
- Steals: 0
- Turnovers: 5
- FG shooting: 5-10
- 3-point shooting: 2-4
- Free throws: 9-9
Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever upcoming games
- May 20: vs. Portland Fire, 6 p.m. CT, USA Network
- May 22: vs. Golden State Valkyries, 6:30 p.m. CT, ION
- May 28: at Golden State Valkyries, 9 p.m. CT, Prime
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