My 7 y.o. son had an interview last week for a program I've been trying to get him into for months. Obviously it is getting very late in the year and this is becoming stressful. Our other option is the neighborhood school where 30% of the kids don't meet state standards.

Last he finally had his interview. I understood it to be more to make sure that the child matched the app and has no obvious social problems, rather than an additional level of screening. But I could be mistaken.

I picked him up after the interview and he was happy and asking the teacher if he would be able to attend the school. Then I asked him a few questions about what he had done with the teacher. It all sounded OK until he mentioned that he had written a story. This is what he said he wrote:

"One day I was at school and I noticed a box on my desk. Suddenly, IT MOVED. Little did I know there was a pigeon inside, so I pulled out my machine gun and shot it to smithereens! When I opened the box there was a dead pigeon inside. Then I was expelled.

Then I went to a new school where there was a bully. So I ...something here about shooting him but I was in too much shock to fully process..... And I got expelled."

My son has been at the same school for 5 years. He is considered a well-behaved child. His teacher is very fond of him. His soccer coach last season specifically requested that DS return to his team because he is such a nice boy. He gets upset when his brother gets hurt or in trouble and is very good with animals and loves babies. We have NO concerns about about his mental health.

But, I don't know what happened with the story. Obviously he was trying to be funny, with some Percy Jackson influence thrown in (Percy jackson gets expelled all the time and killed a cheerleader/monster). I wrote the interviewing teacher an email explaining this, but have heard nothing. We are kind of assuming that he has no chance. OTOH...I don't think he did anything wrong! He wa asked to wrtie a fictional story and he did. He doesn't realize the issues around guns in schools.

Any educators have an opinion on this? It this story a dealbreaker?