2nd Grade Boy Suspended for Pretending Pencil Is Gun

Norfolk, Va., boy suspended after making gun noises and aiming his pencil

Suffolk Boys Suspended After Using Pencils as Guns (PilotOnline.com)

The 7-year-old classmates pointed pencils at each other and made shooting noises - innocent play between friends, the mother of one said.

"They were pretending they were in the military," Wendy Marshall said.

What she called harmless fun was considered threatening behavior by the Suffolk Public Schools. The boys, second-graders at Driver Elementary, were suspended because of Friday's pencil-pointing incident.

"We consider it intimidating and threatening," said Bethanne Bradshaw, school division spokeswoman. "It doesn't have a place in the classroom."

The boys were kept out of school Monday and Tuesday for violating the division's weapons policy. They initially faced up to 10 days' suspension.

When Marshall learned why her son, Christopher, had been punished, she deemed the situation "ridiculous."

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