South Carolina high school freshman arrested, suspended for using word ‘gun’ in class assignment

A South Carolina high school student was arrested and suspended after handing in a class assignment in which he wrote about killing his neighbor’s pet dinosaur with a gun he purchased to “take care of the business.”

Freshman Alex Stone said it was only a joke. His mother, Karen Gray, was irate he got busted. Gray said Summerville High School administrators acted rashly when they reported her son to cops last Tuesday on the second day of school.

“I could understand if they made him rewrite it because he did have ‘gun’ in it. But a pet dinosaur?” Gray told CBS affiliate WCSC. “I mean first of all, we don’t have dinosaurs anymore. Second of all, he’s not even old enough to buy a gun.”

Alex, 16, got in trouble after he and his classmates were told to write a Facebook-like update about themselves in a few sentences.

“I regret it because they put it on my record, but I don’t see the harm in it,” Alex told the station. “I think there might have been a better way of putting it, but I think me writing like that, it shouldn’t matter unless I put it out toward a person.”

His lawyer, David Aylor, said in a statement Thursday that Alex’s arrest “is a perfect example of ‘political correctness’ that has exceeded the boundaries of common sense.”

After cops were called they searched Alex's locker and book bag. The school suspended Alex for three days. He returns to school Monday.

The Summerville Police Department defended the arrest. They said Alex was charged with disorderly conduct when he became disruptive after school officials confronted him about what he wrote.

“The charges do not stem from anything involving a dinosaur or writing assignment, but the student’s conduct,” Capt. Jon Rogers said in a statement Thursday, according to WCSC.