PITTSBURGH -- Fourteen elementary school students have been suspended for bringing "happy crack" to school.

It happened in Penn Hills at Shenandoah Elementary School.

"Happy crack" is really a mixture of Kool-Aid and sugar.

One of the suspended students' mothers called Channel 4 Action News about the punishment for her fifth-grader.

She thinks it was too harsh for an 11-year-old and instead, the kids should have been warned first.

"The zero tolerance policy is one that in the long run is actually detrimental to the children," Denise Brown Bey said. "I think we have to allow children to be children and make mistakes."

The kids are back in school after a three-day suspension.

The school superintendent said she couldn't comment because discipline is confidential, but said, "The Penn Hills School District's controlled substances policy strictly prohibits, look-alike drugs and particularly the mimic of use and mimic of sale of these substances. The replication of the sale of drugs is a behavior that we cannot foster in our schools."