ATLANTA, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- A high school student in Georgia has been suspended and faces expulsion after using a counterfeit $10 bill to pay her teacher for candy, school officials say.
Tierra Payton says she didn't know the bill, which she said was given to her by her aunt, was fake.
"I don't have a money marker to determine. It's not that I knew. I'm more surprised than they are," she told WSB-TV, Atlanta, Tuesday.
Once Dutchtown High School officials determined the bill was fake, the junior was suspended pending a Wednesday hearing. Payton faces expulsion and deferment to an alternative school.
"I don't think anyone, I don't care who it is, should be made to feel like they're a criminal before any trial or anything has gone on," Payton's aunt Cheryl Gardner said.
"And I shouldn't miss almost a week out of school because of something like this," Payton said.
Gardner said she got the bill from a self-checkout machine at a home improvement store.
