In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, schools around the country are on high alert for any suspicious activity on the part of their students. The problem comes when this heightened sense of fear leads to stories like the case of a Texas teenager who was suspended from his high school and moved into an alternative school. The reason? He played Counter-Strike on his home computer, on a level that was designed to look like his high school.

This school's response looks like a reaction to the discredited link between violent games and the Virginia Tech shootings. Although no video games were found in the dorm room of Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui, the "link" between the tragedy and games like Counter-Strike was trumped up by pundits like Jack Thompson and television personality Dr. Phil. The nonstory gained traction in the mainstream press and may be a factor in the unidentified student's suspension.

Counter-Strike, the game that Cho Seung-Hui allegedly played in high school, is a popular online first-person shooter that pits teams of terrorists against counter-terrorists is a variety of scenarios. Players can also design their own maps for the game, and apparently the student in question created a map based on his high school. That was enough to have him sent to an alternative school, despite the fact that he had no disciplinary problems or incidents of violent behavior. "He did it at his house. Never took anything to school. Never wrote an ugly letter, never said anything strange to a student or a teacher, nothing," said board member Stan Magee to the Houston Chronicle.

After it was reported the student played the game at his house using this custom map, his computer was searched by law enforcement, who found nothing criminal on the PC. The very act of creating the map and playing the game was apparently dangerous enough to keep him from returning to his school, however. "This goes back to Columbine. Ever since that horrid incident took place schools today have to take every incident that is reported very seriously," Fort Bend ISD spokesperson Mary Ann Simpson told the Houston Chronicle.

While it's hard to find fault with a system that's trying to protect students, it's harder to justify the removal of a student from school based on his playing of a video game in his spare time. The student's parents are appealing the decision, and some on the school board now believe that his removal may have been wrong. "I think we overreacted as a result of the Virginia Tech ordeal," Magee later told the Chronicle.

School administrators are not alone if they are on edge in the aftermath of Virginia Tech. Those fears mean that behavior like playing violent video games can bring suspicion on gamers, especially when they create scenarios that hit a bit too close to home.