How terrified are we of guns when a doodle of one is considered dangerous?

A 13-year-old student who drew a picture of a gun on his homework at Payne Junior High School in Queen Creek, Arizona was suspended from school, reported KPHO-TV in Phoenix.

The boy was initially suspended for at least five days, but his father spoke to the principal, who reduced it to three.

The Mosteller family moved to Chandler from Colorado Springs only four weeks ago, but it’s not the kind of greeting Paula Mosteller, the boy’s mother, said she was expecting.

“My son is a very good boy,” Mosteller said. “He doesn’t get into trouble. There was nothing on the paper that would signify that it was a threat of any form,” she said.

The principal at Payne Junior High School kept the actual drawing.

Said the boy’s mother, “He was just basically doodling and not thinking a lot about it.”

The Chandler Unified School District declined to give more details about the incident, saying, “Federal privacy law forbids the school or district from discussing student discipline.”

“We’re not advocates for guns,” Mosteller said. “We don’t have guns in our home. We don’t promote the use of guns. My son was just basically doodling on a piece of paper.”

There’s nothing in a portion of the student handbook that addresses conduct to indicate the drawing of a weapon poses threat, the television station reported.

There is, however, a rule that says students should not engage in “threatening an educational institution by interference with or disruption of the school.”

Here’s the part they don’t mention in the article. The kid said he was doodling the gun because he saw a gun in the movie Anastasia, which they were watching while he was doodling. This is a good example of why my kid will be going to private school – they were watching a cartoon movie in class.

There’s a video, which shows a recreation of the doodle in question at this site.

UPDATE:

Here’s the sketch:

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