Boy, 7, suspended over imaginary grenade

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LOVELAND, Colo., Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A Colorado mother said her 7-year-old son should not have been suspended from school for throwing an imaginary grenade into a box of pretend evil.

Mandie Watkins said her son, Alex, a second-grader at Mary Blair Elementary School in Loveland, was suspended from school when he threw the imaginary grenade -- which was not represented by a real, physical object -- into a box while playing a game he called "rescue the world," KDVR-TV, Denver, reported Wednesday.

"I pretended the box, there's something shaking in it, and I go 'pshhh,'" Alex said. "So nothing can get out and destroy the world."

Administrators said the game violated one of the school's "absolutes" against any weapons, real or imaginary.

"Honestly I don't think the rule is very realistic for kids this age," Watkins said. "I think that when a child is trying to save the world, I don't think he should be punished for it."