America has suspended kids for allegedly biting Pop-Tarts in the shape of firearms, shooting Hello Kitty bubble guns at the bus stop, and now, we’ve come to the point of no return: A young boy has been punished for bending paperclips.

Obviously, those disciplining the child did not consider the possibility of a kid just being a kid and simply bending the alleged “assault paper clip” – because he was bored. Maybe the class was working on a confusing Common Core math lesson and he simply wanted to amuse himself. Who knows?
We all might understand disciplinary action if the circumstances of the incident reported he had been acting aggressively towards other kids, but the thing is – they don’t.

On Thursday, Reddit member FatManManFat shared this image of a reason for suspension taken against his friend’s son by school officials.

If you can’t read what’s in the image, here is what it says:

Sean was brought to the office by a staff member who reported that Sean had a sharp object on him in his right pocket. When asked what he had in his pocket he reported he did not have anything. When asked to empty his pockets he refused. After several minutes Sean emptied his pockets. The contents of his pockets included a cell phone, pen cap, and paper clip. The paperclip was bent in a manner that could allow for use as a weapon.

Just for the record, a bent paperclip looks like this:

Observe that such a thing can be done just by a kid who is, I don’t know, just playing with a paperclip, or it can be used to reset electronics.
Note at this point that every single student in the entire school has an object that could “allow for use as a weapon” – a sharpened pencil.

Assuming this kid is the second coming of Hannibal Lector like this school official obviously does, then his bent paper clip is no more dangerous than the pen cap that could be chewed into a nasty rubber band projectile!

Then there’s the potential of kids using straws duing lunchtime as deadly blowdart guns!

Let’s not forget about these bad boys, which can put an eye out…