12-Year-Old Boy Suspended After Unknowingly Paying for Lunch With Counterfeit Bill, Parents Say

A 12-year-old boy in Georgia has been suspended for unknowingly paying for school lunch with counterfeit money. 

Christian Philon, who attends Austin Road Middle School in Stockbridge, gave the money to a cafeteria worker on Jan. 10. When she marked the $20 bill with a counterfeit pen, it turned out to be fake, his parents told WSB-TV.

Earvin Philon, Christian’s dad, said he’d received the counterfeit cash after getting change from a fast food restaurant and didn’t realize it wasn’t real. 

Christian was sent to the principal and later suspended for “possessing counterfeit money," a violation of the school's handbook. 

“The whole process in unfair,” Christian told the station.

His parents plan to fight the suspension even though the school’s disciplinary panel upheld Christian’s suspension Wednesday.

A school official told WSB-TV the school does not comment on student disciplinary cases.

The family has also filed a police report about the counterfeit bill. 

Christian is a straight-A student and on the school’s honor roll, his parents said. 

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