An 8-year-old Florida boy was suspended from school for pretending to use his finger as a gun.

Bonnie Bennett told WKMG-TV that her son was suspended Friday from Harmony Community School in Osceola County after playing cops and robbers with another student.

“There was nothing in his hand,” Bennett said. “He used his thumb and index finger. It was a game. He made no threatening advances or threats to harm anyone. No words were said.”

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Bennett said she wouldn’t have been upset if the boy had been punished some other way, but she’s concerned that the suspension will cause her son to be classified as a “violent offender.”

School officials declined to comment on specifics of the case, but they said the boy’s actions violated the code of student conduct.

The other boy was sent home, Bennett said her son told her.

Bennett said she hopes to convince the school’s principal to remove the suspension from her son’s record.

“I’m prepared to go to court if I have to because this is wrong,” Bennett said. “It’s wrong for my son and any other child if they’re faced with the same thing because of a game.”

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