A 13-year-old was suspended from school for drawing a stick figure holding a gun

A North Carolina father claims a middle school overreacted when it suspended his 13-year-old son for two days over a drawing, WRAL reports. The drawing, one of many doodles in the boy’s possession, depicted a stick figure armed with a gun. The suspension was issued earlier in the year, before the Parkland shooting.

James Herring said there was “nothing violent” about the images drawn by his son, explaining that the seventh-grader is an avid hunter, but has no emotional issues or violent tendencies.

“I see a guy in a race car souped-up,” Herring told WRAL. “I see a tower that he built. I see him holding his gun, he’s a deer hunter. I see him with a magician and I see him as a Ninja Turtle. “He’s just expressing himself, nothing violent. When I see that, I see a normal 13-year-old boy. I drew pictures like this, any other person of his age drew drawings like this. It’s nothing to get expelled from school for.”

But officials at Roseboro-Salemburg Middle School in Roseboro, N.C., disagree.

“Due to everything happening in the nation, we’re just being extravigilant about all issues of safety,” said Sampson County Schools superintendent Eric Bracy.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Dad says 6-year-old daughter’s homework on President Trump seems like ‘indoctrination’
The Parkland shooting survivors are still just kids — and their fashion makes that very clear
16-year-old student kicked off of school bus for wearing ‘inappropriate’ shirt

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.