HENRICO COUNTY, Va. – A teacher’s allegations of assault may come down to the softness of the weapon: a baby carrot.

Aliya May, a 14-year-old student at Virginia’s Moody Middle School, is accused of “assault and battery” of a former teacher.

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CBS 6 reports May was leaving class recently when she saw a teacher she had last year in the hallway.

So, “as a joke, she said she reached for a baby carrot she had stashed at lunch and tossed it towards the teacher, never thinking she’d hit her in the forehead,” according to the news station.

But it allegedly did and now the teen is facing assault charges.

“I don’t even know how to combat the stupidity,” says Karrie May, Aliya’s mother, who adds her daughter has been out of school for a month over the incident.

“I don’t understand this,” May says. “Yes, it happened, and I can see a couple of days in school detention or even a couple days out-of-school suspension. But this goes way beyond that. We have to go to court, and her charges aren’t small: assault and battery with a weapon.”

But according to “legal expert” Todd Stone, the firmness of the carrot — which was seized as evidence and measured less than two inches — may play a role in the case.

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“If it’s a soft carrot, it may not be as offensive,” Stone tells CBS 6. “But if it’s a raw carrot, you don’t have to have an injury or show you were hurt to prove a battery. It just has to be an offensive, vindictive touch. That’s what the law says.”

According to Karrie May, her daughter received a letter from the school Disciplinary Review Board, which was apparent attempt “to get her daughter to admit guilt.”

She declined and now awaits a summons to court.

“This could go before a judge and there could be sufficient evidence to find her guilty, but I don’t think it’s something a judge would want to find her guilty of,” legal expert Stone says. “They may offer her counseling, sort of a carrot at the end of a stick.”