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Kindergartener given detention for bringing this tiny LEGO figure gun on school bus
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 12:40 EST, 28 May 2013 | UPDATED: 17:06 EST, 28 May 2013
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A 6-year-old kindergartner sparked an uproar at his Massachusetts school when he was spotted brandishing a tiny plastic Lego gun on the school bus last week.
Mieke Crane, the child's mother, insists that officials at Old Mill Pond Elementary School in Palmer overreacted when another student saw the toy, which is slightly bigger than a quarter, and alerted the driver Friday.
'She [driver] said he caused quite a disturbance on the bus and that the children were traumatized,' Crane told the local station WGGB.
Tiny weapon: A 6-year-old kindergarten student was slapped with detention for bringing this Lego gun, which is only slightly larger than a quarter, on a school bus
Hullabaloo: Officials at Old Mill Pond Elementary School forced the child to write a letter of apology to the bus driver
In the aftermath of the incident, the school sent a letter home to parents explaining what happened and stressing that there was no actual firearm aboard the bus, and that the students were never in any danger.
The missive was accompanied by a photo of the black toy gun showing its actual diminutive size.
Crane's son has been forced to write a letter of apology to the bus driver. He was also given detention Tuesday and could be temporary stripped off his busing privileges.
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'I could see if it was, you know, an Airsoft gun or some sort of pistol or live bullets or something. This is just a toy,' the mother said.
The student who yelled about the toy gun on the bus also had to issue an apology, which both the child's mother and Crane believe was a mistake because kids should be able to speak up when they see something suspicious.
Mother speaks: Mieke Crane, the boy's mother, insisted that her son knows that guns are bad, but he did not make the connection between his Lego toy and a real firearm
Crane insists that her 6-year-old son knows that firearms are dangerous and have no place in school, but he simply did not consider his toy as a weapon.
‘At 6 years old, I don’t really think he understood the zero tolerance policy and related it to this as the same,’ said Crane.
MailOnline attempted to contact Ms Crane Tuesday, but was unable to reach her.
A call was also placed with Palmer Public Schools, but school officials were not immediately available for a comment.
There have been several incidents in recent months involving students getting in trouble for bringing toy guns to school.
Panic: Another student spotted the toy gun aboard a school bus and yelled to the driver to alert her
In February, a 10-year-old boy from Virginia was arrested for bringing a fake gun that looked like a semi-automatic handgun onto the school bus.
Around the same time, a 7-year-old boy from Colorado was suspended from school after he lobbed an imaginary grenade on the playground while pretending to be a war hero.
In March, 5-year-old Jonah Stone was given a half-day suspension for bringing a plastic toy gun to his kindergarten class.
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