Lawyer files appeal for pastry gun maker

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BALTIMORE, March 19 (UPI) -- An attorney for the 7-year-old Maryland boy suspended for biting his breakfast pastry into a gun shape said he is seeking to have the boy's record expunged.

Robin Ficker, the attorney hired by J.B. Welch, father of Park Elementary School student Josh Welch, said he filed an appeal Thursday with Anne Arundel County schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell to have the two-day suspension from March 1 expunged from the 7-year-old's record, The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday.

Ficker said keeping the suspension on the boy's record could hurt him later in school.

"Who knows what doubt he's not going to be given the benefit of later?" Ficker asked.

Bob Mosier, a spokesman for Anne Arundel County Public Schools, said the appeal is being reviewed.

"Park Elementary has taken the worst possible interpretation of Joshua's actions," Ficker wrote in the appeal. "The chewed cereal bar looked no more like a gun than the puzzle pieces of the states of Idaho, Oklahoma, or Florida. ... There is no evidence that any other student was frightened by the pastry."