A 6-year-old boy was suspended from Roscoe Nix Elementary in Silver Spring for one day for making a hand gesture in the shape of a gun, aiming it at another student and saying "pow," local news outlets have reported. 

A Jan. 2 meeting on the suspension was scheduled, the Washington Examiner reports.

"What they're doing is looking at the worst possible interpretation of a young, naive 6-year-old," Robin Ficker, the family's attorney, told the Examiner. "This is a little child who can't form the intent to do anything like that."

Ficker told NBC4 the school overreacted because of the killing of 20 children and 6 staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT. 

The school cited a previous incident where it alleged the boy threatened to shoot another student, but Ficker said the school refuses to give the boy's parents details of the earlier incident, other than sending home a letter stating that it had happened. The lawyer also said the parents were not made aware of any previous threats made by their son. 

Suspensions can be appealed within 10 days, according to Montgomery County Public Schools rules. 

A spokesperson for the school system told local news sources that the school tries to make sure that younger students and their families know about behavior that needs to be corrected and the ramifications for continuing that behavior.