KENT police have refused to back down on their decision to arrest an 11-year-old boy for taking a toy gun into school.

Earl Crump spent three hours in a cell and had fingerprints taken at Sittingbourne police station after he was arrested at Cheyne Middle School.

He was also suspended from school for three days after the school claimed he threatened another pupil with the toy gun.

A spokeswoman for Kent Police said reports about firearms are taken very seriously.

"Two officers arrested a boy at school on suspicion of possessing an imitation firearm in a public place. The boy’s mother was present when he was taken into custody.

"Kent Police has a duty of care to ensure any reports relating to firearms or imitation weapons are fully investigated and dealt with effectively. The officers acted appropriately and in the public’s interest."

But his mum, Tracy Crump said it was too severe a punishment.

She said: "All they had to do was take it off him and give him a telling off. I had no idea he had taken it into school, but boys will be boys won’t they?

"There’s no way he would have intended to harm anyone. It wasn’t even loaded with foam pellets."

Head teacher Peter Woollacott said it was not the school’s decision to have Earl arrested, but he had no criticism of the way the police dealt with the incident.

"Our police community support officer saw the young boy threaten another pupil with the toy gun so we dealt with it internally.

"There were two police officers in the school on another matter who decided to arrest him."

Mr Woollacott also defended his own decision to suspend Earl.

"The school policy is to prevent children from bringing in weapons or imitation weapons.

"If they use these things to threaten other pupils we suspend them and this is what happened in this case.

"Given the current climate, the boy needs to know what he did was wrong."

But Miss Crump responded: "Earl learned his lesson as soon as he was summoned to the head teacher’s office. He’s a nervous wreck and I’m not sure when I’ll let him back to school now."