A "patriotic" stick-figure drawing of a U.S. Marine blowing away a Taliban fighter earned a 14-year-old schoolboy a five-day suspension.

Scott Switzer, of Colts Neck, N.J., whose father and stepfather serve in the military, was sent home last week from Tinton Falls Middle School after a teacher saw the image on a computer and described it to the principal, the New York Post reported.

New Jersey student Scott Switzer with drawing (Photo: Thomas Hinton, New York Post)

"He's been punished for the drawing," said Tinton Falls school superintendent Leonard Kelpsh, according to the Post. "We felt it was highly inappropriate, and we took it very seriously."

Switzer insists the discipline was unjust.

"Truth be told, it's a Marine shooting a terrorist Taliban," he told the New York paper. "It's just a picture. What upsets me most is that the principal would dare say it's not normal. To me, it's patriotic."

Family members told the Post Switzer had been suspended before and was involved in three "minor" incidents.

The teen suffers from attention deficit disorder, according to his stepmother, Kim Switzer.

He lives with his stepmother and father, a Navy engineer in the Persian Gulf. His stepfather serves in the Army.

School officials might have lowered their tolerance, Scott indicated, because of a previous incident in which other students drew a "very Columbine-ish" picture, the Post said.

Scott's drawing raised concern, according to officials, because they feared it referred to another student who might be a potential target.

The New York paper said, however, the sketch was deemed benign by a local psychologist who examined Scott.

"I don't attribute pathological significance to it," Dr. Gloria Tillman, a psychologist who treated the boy for ADD, told the Post.

"I have to wonder what is expected of our children today when 1) our country is at war and 2) both his father and stepfather are out fighting the war."

Scott said although he recognized the concern for safety, he was offended by the officials' characterization of the drawing as "not the work of a normal mind."

"Truth be told, I'm more upset that he'd insinuate that I'm mentally unstable," he told the Post. "I'm the class clown. I'm not a bully."