He showed it to some other kids on the bus. Or maybe it was in the bathroom at school, or in homeroom. Regardless, when the assistant principal opened up this 11-year-old's backpack, there was a pot leaf and a lighter in there.

That discovery led to a 364-day school suspension and a marijuana possession charge in juvenile court for the 6th-grader from Virginia. According to the Roanoke Times, the parents say their formerly happy-go-lucky son has spiraled since the incident. Now he's socially withdrawn, depressed and has panic attacks from the stress of being kicked out of school.

But there's one major problem: The leaf, it turned out, was just ... a leaf.

While his parents have filed a federal lawsuit against the school system, claiming the police and administrators had it all wrong, MTV News wondered how the punishment for possession of an actual marijuana leaf could possibly be the same as the penalty for a leaf as harmless as one you'd find in a bouquet of flowers.

"I personally don't think it's relevant if it was fake or not," attorney Mel Williams told MTV News, this week, about the case he's handling for Bruce and Linda Bays, the boy's parents. "Everything from the school system before we filed the lawsuit said, 'Your son was suspended because he was in possession of marijuana and a lighter at school.' Any talk of 'imitation controlled substance' only came up since their lawyer got involved and now they're searching for a rationalization for what they did."

A Leaf By Any Other Name

The story begins with a student in the school’s gifted program (not named here because he's a minor), who came to school on Sept. 22 and allegedly bragged about having weed, according to local reports.

The Bays, however, say their son claimed to have has no idea how the leaf, or a lighter, got into his backpack. The parents have heard it could have been part of a prank. They also speculated to their attorney that their son could have lucked it from a tree on the way to the bus stop. Prank or no, the punishment was swift.

Bedford County Public school spokesperson Ryan Edwards told MTV he couldn't comment because of the ongoing federal court case and rules against discussing student discipline. But he suggested looking at the published state policies enforced by Bedford County schools, which prohibit the distribution or possession or "any narcotic drug” and any "imitation controlled substances or drug paraphernalia while on school property.”

The punishment in either situation? “Automatic recommendation of expulsion," as the Virginia grade-schooler discovered. (The thinking goes: What if one of his classmates at Bedford Middle School had tried to smoke it and gotten really sick? Or worse?)

The Zero-Tolerance Policy Has IRL Consequences

"Their zero-tolerance policy treats [real and imitation marijuana] as the same and I can see from a philosophical standing why the school wants to deter someone from acting like something is a drug if it could cause harm to a student," family attorney Williams said. "But to me, the punishment seems overly harsh."

Williams isn't the only one who thinks it's harsh. In 2008, the American Psychological Association reported that zero-tolerance rules have "failed to achieve the goals of an effective system of school discipline."

MTV News was unable to reach Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown or attorney Jim Guynn, who represents the Bedford Middle School system, for comment on the case, at press time.

One Bad, Life-Changing Decision

D.A.R.E. America president Frank Pegueros told MTV News the policy has its merits but not always. "I understand the rationale behind the zero-tolerance policy, but sometimes common sense does not appear to have been applied. He added, "That can have a long-lasting effect for what may at best have been a bad decision."

Kind of like sending non-violent offenders to prisons where they might learn how to be hard-core criminals.

Back To School (Of Hard Knocks)

During his suspension, the student tried to enroll in the school's online education program, but eventually dropped it because if he didn't keep up with its strict schedule, he would have been sent to an alternative education program for other students in trouble. That, the Bays feared, might make the situation worse.

So, on Monday, he was back at his old school -- seven months later -- but under very strict guidelines. "Basically, he's still on probation [at school] and any little infraction could result in him getting kicked out again," former juvenile system prosecutor Williams said. "My experience is that when a kid is in school and on probation, it's usually a pretty tight leash."

And that pot leaf? Three different field tests came back negative for marijuana, though the Bay family and Williams have still never laid eyes on it.