Kim Mitchell might want to re-evaluate those lyrics — because as it turns out, going for a soda isn’t so harmless after all.

No, nobody was hurt, and nobody cried.

But selling bootleg Pepsi out of his locker has certainly tainted the academic record of a 17-year-old Lethbridge student, who ended up suspended on a charge of smuggling sugary drinks into school, and then selling them for a profit.

“From a business perspective, what he did was actually very smart, and if you look at from the perspective of profit, 140% is pretty good,” said Alyssa Shaw-Letourneau.

Clearly mom doesn’t support the school’s decision to punish her son Keenan Shaw, who’s triggered his own cola war by defying a school directive to keep sugary drinks out of their halls of learning.

This Pepsi challenge has nothing to do with taste, and everything to do with challenging the authority of a school to decide what constitutes contraband, especially since the banned substance can be legally purchased right across the street.

Mom says her son admittedly ignored a principal’s warning to stop selling pop from his locker, but she says the reaction from the school — Keenan was sent home Wednesday at lunch and allowed back in class Thursday morning — was ridiculous.

“A suspension is just not in order for something this minor, but yes, he did get his warning,” said Shaw-Letourneau, a former school teacher.

It’s the policy of Lethbridge School District No. 51 to keep sugared soda out of school under the board’s Healthy Nutritional Choices Policy.

Diet versions of the drinks are allowed, despite strong evidence showing they pose a health risk too — but of course, the only healthy concern to Keenan Shaw was profit.

Knowing students at Winston Churchill high would pay for real pop — he’s being running a similar smuggling op since Grade 9 — Shaw went to the local grocery store to score a case of Pepsi.

After a few “Psst, wanna buy a Pepsi,” Shaw had $12 in his pocket — and the man on his tail.

Shaw says he was shocked to be taken to task over what he saw as a solid entrepreneurial thinking, but the school’s principal made it clear the soda shenanigans must stop immediately.

Both mom and son admit they didn’t take the warning too seriously, given the nature of high schools and far more serious contraband issues for teachers and staff to worry about.

But the principal wasn’t fooling around about the Pepsi racket, and when Shaw reopened his pop shop, a short suspension from school followed.

“For breaches of rules that are not related to student safety, illegal substances or moral tone of the school, the behavior would need to be excessive, persistent, or chronic disobedience,” said Lethbridge School District No. 51 Supt. Cheryl Gilmore, in a statement.

Gilmore says no student would ever be suspended just for selling pop — “It would not be reasonable” — but to ignore a direct warning to cease and desist takes the matter to another level.

“If a student has been asked directly to stop a behaviour, given time to correct the behaviour, and subsequently communicate that they refuse to correct the behaviour, the behaviour can be described as persistent disobedience,” said Gilmore.

Shaw, for his part, says he’s learned a valuable lesson — and that’s location, location, location.

“I’ve learned a lot about business and authority as well as supply and demand, as well as how location ties into all these factors,” he said.

The real question is whether the teenage businessman has closed shop, given the pressure from authority to stay on the straight, narrow and sugar-free.

The answer is no. But Shaw says he’s also managed to find a thin grey area between the school’s rules, and still making a profit from thirsty students: the sidewalk.

“I sold a couple cans today — I’ve found a little loop hole,” said Shaw,

“I can walk out to the sidewalk, make the trade off, and walk back into the school.”

michael.platt@sunmedia.ca