Keep Precious in the pocket! A 9-year-old boy from Kermit, Texas, was suspended last week after threatening to make his classmate disappear with the ring from The Lord of the Rings.
The offender, a fourth grade student named Aiden Steward, who happens to be a mega Lord of the Rings fan, brought a copy of the gold ring marked with an insignia to school. Aiden then put the ring on a classmate's head, and told him that he could make him "disappear."
The threat did not sit well with his classmate or the school's administrators, prompting Aiden's suspension.
His father Jason Steward spoke to the New York Daily News this past weekend about the incident, expressing outrage that his son was suspended over what was clearly a make-believe moment.
"It sounded unbelievable," the father told the paper, adding that his son "didn’t mean anything by it." Steward explained how his family had recently watched The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and his son was simply acting out the film.
"I assure you my son lacks the magical powers necessary to threaten his friend’s existence," Steward told the Daily News. "If he did, I'm sure he'd bring him right back."
The Principal of Aiden's school, meanwhile, declined to comment about the incident when asked about it by local paper Odessa American.
Since last week, the story has gone viral. Ian McKellen, who notably plays Gandalf in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogies, caught wind of Aiden's suspension and shared his take on Facebook, quoting a Washington Post writer.
"'Little Aiden’s classmates are in absolutely no danger — except perhaps from the Ringwraiths who work in public school administration,'" McKellen wrote on Facebook, quoting Ilya Somin.
