Aiden Steward had just watched the third Hobbit movie with his family and he wanted to pretend that he had a ring that could make people disappear, just like Bilbo Baggins. But when he brought the toy ring to school, it ended up getting him suspended.
The ring he brought may not have been the true ring of power, but the Kermit, Texas, school where he attended said the pretend Tolkien "one ring" was used in a "threat" against a classmate.
When Aiden told a student that he could make him disappear since the plastic ring was forged in fictional Middle Earth's Mount Doom, the
school accused him of "threats of violence" against classmates."It sounded unbelievable," Aiden's father, Jason Steward, said in an interview with the
Daily News. But Jason said his son "didn't mean anything by it."
He explained that their family had just watched
The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies that week, and the elementary school boy was just pretending he had a ring like in the movie.
"Kids act out movies that they see. When I watched
Superman as a kid, I went outside and tried to fly," Steward explained.
"I assure you my son lacks the magical powers necessary to threaten his friend's existence," Aiden's father continued. "If he did, I'm sure he'd bring him right back."
Comment: What an interesting coincidence, that almost at the same time another fire that burned millions of unique documents happened in Moscow.