A 10-year-old boy has been permanently expelled from the Henry County School District after bringing party poppers to school, Channel 2 Action News reported.

The tiny poppers fireworks, which make noise when thrown against a hard surface, are considered explosive compounds by the school’s hearing officer, who decided to expel the child, Channel 2 reported.

"He's 10. He had no idea he was doing something wrong,” the mother, who asked to be identified only as Noelle, told the news station.

The incident happened earlier in May when her child popped a few of the noisemakers at the bus stop and brought them to Flippen Elementary School, Channel 2 reported.

Noelle told the news station a neighborhood girl told the principal, who searched her son’s bookbag. She said her son thought he had used all of them, but three were found unpopped.

Noelle plans to appeal the hearing officer’s decision to permanently expel her son. and she hopes the decision will be overturned.

"I can't pop it in my hand. It doesn't harm you. It doesn't hurt you,” Noelle told Channel 2. “They don't even make a spark. They just make a noise.”

A school spokesperson told the news station he couldn’t discuss this specific case, but the rules are clear in the handbook that permanent expulsion is the punishment when a student brings an explosive compound to school.

In other news:

Police said a teen was shot and killed in northwest Atlanta Wednesday morning.

About the Author

Keep Reading

Former President Jimmy Carter looks over the site of his boyhood home and farm as a bank of fog lifts at day break near Plains, Ga., on Monday, Oct. 30, 2000. In the background is the family store and a windmill Carter's father erected in 1935 that supplied running water for the family for the first time. (Curtis Compton/AJC)

Credit: AJC staff

Featured

Bumper to bumper traffic travels northbound on the I-85 just past the I-285 overpass, also known as Spaghetti Junction, in Doraville. In late May and June of this year, several drivers have pulled out weapons and fired guns at other motorists on metro Atlanta roadways. (Jason Getz/AJC 2023)

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com