Richmond, VA (AHN)-An eighth-grader was suspended from school for a day and kicked off the baseball team for eating a staff member's cookie.

According to the AP report, Jeremy Maitland was in the Hungary Creek Middle School kitchen one day last month filling a water cooler for a baseball game when he ate a cookie after someone knocked over a cookie jar and he tried to pick them up.

Maitland's mother, Caryl, says the family received a letter from the assistant principal telling them the cookies were a staff member's personal food, and that Jeremy was being disciplined under the school's theft code.

Appealing the suspension, Caryl Maitland, the boy's mother, says she understands the boy had to be disciplined, but she says eating a cookie and taking someone's laptop computer should not warrant the same punishment.

Meanwhile, superintendent Fred Morton declined to discuss specifics but added that he reviewed the case and found the school's decision reasonable.