A Texas primary school has suspended a child after he allegedly suggested he could use his ‘one ring’ to make a classmate invisible.
Nine year old Aiden Steward had just watched The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies and took a ring to school, which he playfully pretended was from J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings series.
His father, Jason Steward, wrote in an email to the NY Daily News: “I assure you my son lacks the magical powers necessary to threaten his friends existence” and that the whole incident “sounded unbelievable”.
This is the third time Aiden Steward has been suspended since moving into the Kermit Independent School District six months ago.
The first suspension was for reportedly referring to a classmate as ‘black’, and another time for bringing a children’s encyclopaedia, which featured a section on pregnancy, to school with him.
Aiden was said to be nervous about returning to school after being suspended, and the Odessa American reported that his teacher asked him not to talk about any of the national or international coverage of his suspension.
The Kermit Independent School District released a statement saying:
“Kermit ISD cannot disclose information on the discipline of any KISD student because it is confidential under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). We would, however, like to emphasize that our teachers and administrators are well trained and have properly implemented the district’s policy and student code of conduct, and certainly do not base disciplinary placement decisions on literary or cinematic references as reported by the Odessa American.”