BELLEVILLE, Ill. -- The man in the red sweater who became an overnight internet sensation during the 2016 presidential debate has gotten his son into trouble at school.
On Thursday, Ken Bone told KTVI that a picture he tweeted of his son at a shooting range got the 14-year-old suspended from the St. Claire County Regional Office Safe School.
Bone said he shared the two-year-old picture out of sheer innocence, showing his support for Kyle Kashuv, one of the survivors of the Parkland, Florida shooting massacre.
“He was having trouble with security at his school because he had tweeted some pictures of himself with his father at the gun range,” said Bone. “And I wanted to show my support for him, so I tweeted basically the same photo with me and my son.”
But school officials didn’t take that lightly.
“She (the administrator) said that the caption where I said, ‘The security officers should talk to my son,’ she says that was threatening,” he said.
Bone said he's concerned his son will fall behind, especially because this isn’t the first time he’s faced school discipline.
“He took a pocket knife with him to school and he said he didn’t mean to,” Bone said. "It was zipped up in his binder, he got expelled from his old school, which is why he goes to St. Claire ROE now.”
It’s not clear how long his son is suspended for, but Bone said that there’s a learned lesson.
“Definitely be responsible with what you put on social media. It stays around forever,” he said. “And be really careful with your words.”
School administrators told KTVI that they cannot comment on specific discipline cases, at least not until Bellville police complete their investigation.
