SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Police arrested a San Luis Obispo high schooler for making a “criminal threat” after the teen posted pictures of himself on Facebook dressed in military gear and holding airsoft guns.

San Luis Obispo police Lt. Jeff Smith told The Tribune police determined the boy’s pictures were not intended as a threat, and were posted to his private Facebook page and shared only with select friends, but charged the student with a crime regardless.

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The unidentified student posted pictures of himself in military attire with airsoft guns – which shoot plastic BBs – to a small group of friends, but a police officer somehow noticed the posts and contacted the San Luis Obispo High School resource officer.

“There was an admission that the student had made a mistake,” Smith said, adding that his pictures were “more playful banter with friends that understood the joking behind them, but on face value they were more serious threats that were concerning to the school and law enforcement.”

Instead of having a common sense conversation with the student, police opted to arrest the teen for making a criminal threat and took him into custody at the end of the day Friday and hauled to Juvenile Hall, The Tribune reports.

Smith would not discuss the “serious threats” in the student’s Facebook posts, but acknowledged that no specific threat was made and the teen often wore military garb.

“But he made some references that were concerning while dressed in that attire and holding airsoft weapons, which can look realistic but are not threatening,” he said.

The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s office is now working to determine if the student will face a misdemeanor or felony charge, according to The Tribune.

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The case follows similar incidents with students posing with airsoft guns on social media.

Two Bristol Plymouth Regional Technical School students in Massachusetts faced suspension and possible expulsion after they posed with airsoft guns before a homecoming dance in 2014. Tito Velez, then 15, was avid in the sport, and his girlfriend Jamie Pereira supported his pastime.

“This isn’t dangerous, you can’t kill someone with it,” Tito told CBS Boston. “We didn’t shoot anyone; we were pointing them at the floor.”

The incidents also come at a time that school officials are increasingly monitoring students’ social media accounts, including comments or posts made off campus and on private pages, and imposing discipline in the name of school safety.

Most recently, Huntsville City Schools in Alabama announced this week that officials will use sophisticated software to track student social media accounts to preemptively eliminate any perceived threats to students or staff, AL.com reports.

The “new procedure” allows administrators to take action against students based on social media posts, regardless of when or where they’re made, or who sees them. The approach has drawn critics who contend the move is a means of controlling bad publicity, pointing to provisions that allow officials to punish students who post videos of school fights.

“It is not difficult to see that the superintendent may punish students for posting videos of violence in their schools in an effort to prevent the public from seeing what is happening in the schools,” former board member Anson Knowles told AL.com.

The superintendent’s “new procedure is more about preventing students from providing evidence of his own failures,” he added. “This is absurd and should not be allowed.”