Boy, 10, suspended for ‘shooting’ classmate with finger

"All I did was this," says 10-year-old Nathan Entingh as he forms his fingers into the shape of a gun.

The Ohio student was slapped with a three-day suspension by his elementary school principal last week for making the hand gesture at a fellow student's head.

"I was just playing around," he tells the Columbus Dispatch, claiming that other students have been caught playing with pretend guns and didn't receive suspensions. "People play around like this a lot at my school."

According to the Columbus Dispatch, the suspension letter given to the grade 5 Devonshire Alternative Elementary School student referred to the finger gun as a "level 2 lookalike firearm."

"He said he was playing," Nathan's father, Paul Entingh, says. "It would even make more sense maybe if he brought a plastic gun that looked like a real gun or something, but it was his finger."

A teacher caught Nathan pointing his finger at a student's head.

"He was pointing it at a friend's head and he said 'boom.' The kid didn't see it. No other kids saw it. But the teacher saw it," Entingh tells CNN. "It wasn't threatening. It wasn't hostile. It was a 10-year-old kid playing."

And while Entingh doesn't completely disagree with the need for disciplinary action, he believes the three-day suspension for a student who he claims has never been in trouble before is a little overboard.

"I would have even been fine with them doing an in-school suspension," he says.

According to Columbus City Schools spokesman Jeff Warner, the school principal has warned students about this behaviour before.

"We've had a problem at this school. The boys have gone around fake shooting and making paper guns at class. It's inappropriate. She has sent notes to parents for the past three weeks alerting them of the problem."

Entingh claims he never received a letter, but is aware that gun-related behaviour could lead to serious consequences.

"I don't know if it's to the point it happened so much they needed to punish somebody to set an example. I don't know, it blows my mind," Entingh says.

Finger guns aren't the only things that can get you suspended.

Here's how to get suspended in elementary school, according to actual cases in the United States:

• Toss an imaginary grenade at an imaginary box on the playground

• Sing "Sexy and I Know It" to a classmate

• Bring a cartoon drawing of a bomb to class

• Carry a purse to class

Has "zero tolerance" gone too far?

Ohio State Senator Charleta Tavares thinks so, and is proposing new legislation that would overturn a 1998 state law requiring schools to have zero-tolerance policies, claiming they lead to unfair punishments.

"We have moved away from common sense, ensuring that the punishment fits the infraction," Tavares tells CNN. "We should maintain the highest form of punishment which is expulsion or suspension to those cases that cause the most harm."

Her best example of moving away from common sense: the suspension of an eight-year-old Maryland boy who chewed his Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun.

"A gun-shaped edible snack is not a weapon," Tavares says.