QUEEN CREEK, Ariz., Aug. 23 (UPI) -- An eighth-grader has been suspended from his Maricopa County school for doodling a picture of a gun on an assignment, the Arizona Republic reported Thursday.

The decision to suspend the Payne Junior High student for three days for sketching the gun has caused some parents to question the Chandler Unified School District's definition of what actions and words constitute a "threat."

"I understand the zero-tolerance policy, but this is taking it a little too far. It's just a drawing. My daughter draws," Rob DeMarco said about his seventh-grader.

Susan Rethoret of Queen Creek agreed, "They overreacted."

But Tom Hendrickson of Chandler chalks the suspension up to an increase in concern regarding school security.