True (I'm thinking of the 5 year old girl with the Hello Kitty bubble gun and other toy/play gun incidents). I also know of one elementary school district where the kids are no longer allowed real metal knives at lunch, dull though those always were. They've gone to plastic knives in the name of safety. Apparently, forks are still safe, though you could probably do as much damage with them. I guess it's the word "knife" that's scary to school administrators.
But the other incidents were all isolated overreactions with the "zero tolerance" business. Not 3 times in 6 months, with what seem to be clearly innocent acts each time, according to the father. The book strikes me as particularly odd. You'd think that, at most, the teacher would temporarily confiscate it - not suspend the kid. The other thing that raises my potential BS meter is that he told his classmate he'd make him disappear by putting the Ring on top of his
head. That could easily be part of an argument or intimidation attempt, rather than 2 kids playing.
Who knows. But we've only heard one side of the story, and it doesn't seem clear-cut to me.
EDIT:
It's been known to happen to short people from rural areas.
I was being dense, wasn't I?
Short people as in Rings and hobbits from the Shire, not little girls in Pennsylvania school districts ...