Mom Suing School After Kid Made Fake Rifle From Soda Cans

A mother in Missouri is fired up after her 13-year-old son was suspended from school for what he did with soda cans.

In fact, she has filed a lawsuit against the Mountain View-Birch Tree R-III School District. Her son is accused of arranging cans of Dr. Pepper in the shape of a rifle and posting a picture of his creation on his Snapchat.

Per the lawsuit, the district suspended the boy for three days after a parent saw the post and reported it to the school in September 2024.

Mom is furious that her child — listed as “W.G.” in the filing — was suspended for something that he did off of school premises and not during school hours, especially since, according to her, it did not put anyone in danger.

“This is unconscionable—my son never hurt or threatened a single person,” W.G.’s mom, Riley Grunden says.

The school also demanded to search W.G.’s belongings, and they have permanently branded the incident as “cyberbullying” in his school record.

According to Grunden’s lawyers, the school district even admitted its investigation found “no credible evidence of any danger.” Yet administrators still chose to punish the student, because, in their words, the post “caused fear to at least one student.”

“Instead of using common sense, our own school district treated my child like a criminal for arranging empty soda cans in a way they didn’t like,” Grunden says. “What happened to his First Amendment rights?”