Largo, Florida - Richard Smith says it was overkill.

"What rational person would so something like that to a seven-year-old kid?"

Smith and his wife, Barbara, say their son is sensitive and shy but has no history of mental illness and isn't a danger. "He's never hurt himself. He's never hurt anybody else."

Their son attends classes at Mildred Helms Elementary School located at 561 South Clearwater-Largo Road. His mother volunteers at the school each day. She's on the PTA. She tutors students and monitors students in the cafeteria at lunchtime.

Wednesday afternoon, she says, she got a call from the school saying she needed to get to her son's portable classroom immediately. According to police documents, the entire class had to be evacuated after her son threw a temper tantrum, pushed some books off a table and stepped on a teacher's foot.

Barbara admits her son was suspended on a different occasion for...