14 DAY TRIAL // A 7th grader faces expulsion from school and a permanent smudge on his educational record over using an airsoft gun in his yard.
WAVY-TV reports that Khalid Caraballo, of Hampton Roads, has been suspended over "possession, handling and use of a firearm."
The suspension follows a September 12 incident that left two kids bruised over being hit with plastic pellets.
That morning, Caraballo was waiting for the school bus in his yard and he was playing around with airsoft guns with five other friends.
Three of them used the spring-driven guns to shoot at two of the boys, who were with them in Caraballo's yard. They never left the yard to approach the bus stop while carrying the guns.
"We see the bus come. We put the gun down. We did not take the airsoft gun to the bus stop. We did not take the gun to school," Khalid describes.
The young boy had a "zombie" target installed in a tree, and a net was set up behind it to prevent the plastic pellets from leaving the yard.
The three shooters have been suspended by the Virginia Beach school, and officials are weighing in on whether or not to expel them.
"[The] children were firing pellet guns at each other, and at people near the bus stop," Larkspur Middle School principal, Matthew Delane, says. He stressed that one of the boys who got hit had left the yard to get the bus.
Three days before the incident, the mother of one of the "victims" called 911 to report Khalid playing with the non-lethal, but still dangerous gun.
"He is pointing the gun, and it looks like there's a target in a tree in his front yard," she has told the dispatcher.
Caraballo's mother argues that the school's decision is not a fair one.
"My son is my private property. He does not become the school's property until he goes to the bus stop, gets on the bus, and goes to school," Solangel Caraballo says.