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There are some awfully realistic looking squirt guns out there – do you want to put the schools in the business of deciding which are “realistic enough” to fool other children or staff? Realistic enough to be mistaken by security staff for the real thing? IMO, the most even-handed way to avoid such difficulties is to issue a blanket ban on any sort of object “gunlike” enough to pass muster as a “squirt gun”.
And then, there is also the issue of what's in the gun – children do some pretty stupid things for reasons often unclear to the adult around them; if their child gets a squirt of bleach or insecticide in he face are most parent going to accept the explanation that “boys will be boys” or “it's only a squirt-gun anyway”?

Finally, there's the question of why any child should be in the possession of any object that's sole purpose in a school is to distract and disrupt.

Excellent post!

Furthermore parents who try to get in the middle and contradict the school instead of supporting school discipline are doing their children a terrible disservice. When I was a kid, if I got in trouble at school, I was in BIG trouble at home. I had better behave, my mommy was not going to get me out of it.

All very good points. But the article doesn't say that the child was suspended for "disrupting" a class or squirting anyone.

The articles says:

KMBC's Natalie Moultrie reported that Tawann was suspended over a 2-inch plastic squirt gun.

"She told me it's a weapon, a little girl saw it and reported to a teacher that he had a weapon," Womack said.

One of my sons used to belong to a boys-only homeschool club, and one of their favorite activities in the hot weather was a water gun fight. They'd bring all their water guns - a lot bigger than the two-inch red plastic thing this 6 year old brought to school - my son would load up with the double-action squirt guns - and battle each other in teams. (It never turned my son into a bully, that's for sure).

I can understand a school not permitting water guns at all. But I think they should just take the water gun away. Suspending a child for 10 days just because another child "saw" the toy is over the top. :-)