Fourteen-year-old Brian Thompson was handcuffed, placed in a cop car, and suspended from school for 10 days, all because he ran down the sidelines at half-time during a football game while wearing a banana costume. At least he wasn't arrested!

Yes, at least Thompson—an autistic teenager with musical talent and a playful sense of humor—wasn't incarcerated for his totally innocent prank that made people laugh. That's where we are nowadays, America—being glad when kids avoid being arrested for doing absolutely nothing wrong at all.

Apparently the wise officials at Colonial Forge High School, where Thompson is a student, believe that running in a banana suit is disruptive and can lead to "mayhem." Although this video footage doesn't show any of the adolescent spectators in the stands declaring a revolution, taking hostages, or burning down the stadium in response to Thompson's prank, it also doesn't show what they were thinking about (forming a flash mob).

Some of Thompson's classmates tried to express solidarity by wearing "Free the Banana Man" t-shirts, but school officials took their shirts away—and now they have to attend Saturday school as punishment. Colonial Forge enforces a zero-tolerance policy against bananas.

[Fox DC]