A 12-year old Rhode Island boy named Joseph Lyssikato was suspended for three days and barred from going on a school trip to Salem, Massachusetts after a gun-shaped key chain a bit larger than a quarter fell out of his backpack at school.
According to WPBF.com, the key chain fell out of Lyssikato’s backpack while he was at Alan Shawn Feinstein Middle School in Coventry. “Another boy then picked it up and began showing it off.”
Lyssikato’s mother said, “The [other] boy was the one waving it or showing it to other kids. Not Joseph. Joseph wasn’t doing that.” She does not understand why her son was reprimanded so harshly but the other child was not.
The school district has refused to comment on the incident.
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