marshmallow gun
© AFP/Getty Images/Saul LoebObama and marshmallow gun collage
A beloved science teacher at a public high school in downtown Los Angeles has been suspended because a school employee was afraid that a kid's air pressure-related science project looked too much like a weapon.

The teacher, Greg Schiller, was suspended (with pay) back in February. He teaches - or taught - at the brutally futuristic-looking $232 million Cortines School of Visual & Performing Arts (also called Grand Arts High School).

Schiller got into trouble after two of his students turned in science projects designed to shoot little projectiles, reports the Los Angeles Times. One of the projects used compressed air (but was not actually connected to any air). The other one was coil gun: a tube surrounded by a coil and powered by a standard AA battery.

An unidentified school employee saw the air-pressure projectile device and got scared because, to her, it looked like a fearsome weapon.

The amount of knowledge the employee has concerning science - if any - is unclear.

As a result of the unnamed employee's fears, Schiller - who actually never got to see either the air-pressure project or the coil project except in photos - was dismissed from the classroom indefinitely.

School officials impounded both projects as "evidence," according to the mother of the kid who did the coil project.

Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District reportedly told Schiller his crime was "supervising the building, research and development of imitation weapons." However, district officials aren't commenting on the suspension.