SPOTSYLVANIA, Va., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A Virginia high school boy was expelled for the remainder of the school year for blowing plastic pellets at classmates, school officials said.
Andrew Mikel II, 14, used a plastic pen casing to blow the pellets at other students at Spotsylvania High School in Spotsylvania, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
"They flinched. They looked annoyed," the high school freshman said of the three students he hit during a lunch period.
The school district expelled Mikel for possession and use of a weapon, and called the police to the scene, Mikel and his father Andrew Mikel Sr. said.
The boy said he was charged with three counts of misdemeanor assault.
School officials ruled Mikel's pen casing was a projectile weapon under federal law because it was "used to intimidate, threaten or harm others."
School officials said Mikel must be suspended for the remainder of the school year. The elder Mikel appealed, but the school board's disciplinary committee upheld the decision.
"What happened to Andrew Mikel is an example of how oppressive zero-tolerance policies have become. School officials have developed a very dangerous mind-set that allows virtually no freedom for students, while at the same time criminalizing childish behavior," said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group in Charlottesville that is appealing the case in state court.
