TOKYO, JAPAN: In this photo a real mini gun (bottom) is displayed near a gun keyring. Tokyo Metropolitan police confiscated some 1,300 mini guns imported from Austria by a Japanese importer in the first such seizure of the potentially lethal weapons 12 July. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images) File photo of a gun keychain. (credit: JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images)

COVENTRY, R.I. (CBS Connecticut) — Parents of a Rhode Island middle school student claims their son was suspended because of a gun keychain he brought to school.

WJAR-TV reports 12-year-old Joseph Lyssikatos was caught with the gun keychain after it fell out of his backpack and other students noticed it at the Alan Shawn Feinstein Middle School.

“This boy was the one waving it or showing it to other kids. Not Joseph. Joseph wasn’t doing that so why weren’t both of them reprimanded?” Bonnie Bonanno, Joseph’s mother, told WJAR.

The school suspended Joseph for three days following last Thursday’s incident. The 12-year-old will reportedly miss a class field trip and a state test.

“I’m missing the NECAP testing and I’m in advanced math so I’m going to have to redo all the homework I’m going to miss,” Joseph told WJAR.

Bonanno said this suspension will take a toll on her son emotionally.

“That’s disgraceful … being suspended for three days, and this big punishment is enough for him mentally,” Bonanno told WJAR.

School officials said that suspensions are determined by the principal.

“Because this is a student discipline issue, we cannot comment on any specifics,” school officials told WJAR in a statement.

The boy’s parents claim that the school’s behavioral specialist told them of the suspension, not the principal.

The gun keychain is slightly bigger than a quarter.