The Columbus Dispatch has the details:

A Northland High School student could be expelled after playing with a Nerf foam-dart gun in school.

Devon Smith, 14, said he could not resist firing the toy at a friend after a classmate brought it to class.

“He was shooting at another one of my friends, and I moved closer, and I had a shot and missed somebody,” Smith said.

Smith was suspended from school and faces an expulsion hearing this morning.

Columbus City Schools spokesman Michael Straughter said he couldn’t discuss Smith’s case. But he said the district follows the state’s zero-tolerance policy, as well as the Gun-Free School Act.

Under the act, students who bring dangerous weapons to school or possess them are expelled for at least a year.

The act includes lookalike weapons.

Sean Smith Sr., Devon’s father, said he understood the rules, but he wondered whether the district was making the right decision in considering expulsion.

“I believe the crime should fit the punishment,” he said.

Does a Nerf gun really fall into the category for lookalike weapons? Is anyone going to mistake it for a real one? No and no.

Should the kid have gotten in trouble? Sure, but expelled for firing a Nerf gun? Sheesh. Just when you think this kind of over-reaction is a thing of the past a new case comes along. People just seem incapable of using common sense anymore.