Mansfield police received a call about 9:55 a.m. from a passer-by who saw a student dressed in military garb and a helmet with the gun, school police chief Mike Leyman said. The Mansfield district school, which has about 2,800 students, was immediately locked down.

Turns out, it was some art students working on a project about Vietnam.

“A project like that would not meet my approval,” she said. “At no time would we want look-alike drugs, guns, alcohol or tobacco on our campus.”

Wow. They must have been doing the WHOLE Vietnam experience, and here I thought it was just a “simulated” gun. As we all know, “simulated” guns are not allowed on campuses, unless…

The simulated gun was part of the campus ROTC program. The program’s guns are kept in a gun safe, and after the students borrowed the gun for the project, it was immediately returned to the safe, Grant said.

Oh yeah, let the ROTC have toy guns, but heaven forbid an art student should put their hands on one. You know how subversive art students are. You can’t let THEM have toy guns! They might hurt someone … or make an artistic statement that offends the senses.