A souvenir shell casing handed out by veterans at a 9/11 ceremony landed a seven-year-old Missouri boy in hot water when he took the keepsake to school.

Sherry Falke said her son, Zane, forgot he had the souvenir in his pocket when he showed up for class on Tuesday, Fox4KC.com reported. The boy was given the souvenir at a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony in Carrollton, Mo.

"He felt it in his pocket, and he took it out and was showing some of his friends at school," Falke told the station.

"The principal proceeded to reprimand him as though he were bringing live ammunition to school," she said. "I understand that's in the policy, in the handbook, that they can’t bring guns to school. I fully support that, but it's an empty blank casing."

Falke said her son's teacher seized the shell casing and took him to the principal’s office. She claims they Zane he could be suspended from school for 10 days, but instead gave him a silent lunch where he sat by himself and missed two recesses.

"In today’s society, unfortunately, we do have to be concerned with those types of things in schools," Roger Feagan, the superintendent of the Norborne R-VIII School District, told the station.

"Though this seems minor, if we don’t handle the minor things, they can unfortunately escalate into major things down the road," he said.

The school handbook specifically says weapons, firearms, knives and the like are not allowed on school grounds.

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