The trouble started after one second-grader gave another some of the play money she had brought to her suburban Maryland school. The classmatetried to use it - a mock $100 bill - for lunch in the cafeteria, and before long, school security was involved. Then the Prince George's Countypolice were called.

Then, the U.S. Secret Service.

"They treated it like a counterfeit scheme," said Tamara McKinney, grandmother of the girl, then 7 years old, who brought in the bills, which wererealistic but clearly marked "fashion prop money," "copy money" and "the copy money shop of XDOWMO."

In Maryland, police involvement at elementary schools has also become a flash point in Montgomery County, where an incident involving play moneyled to a call to law enforcement on May 14.

In that case, a 10-year-old with learning disabilities shared mock $100 bills with friends on his school bus, and later a bus driver found a straybill. The driver told a supervisor, and police were summoned; the child was identified through a bus camera video recording, authorities say.

Soon, a county police officer was at the boy's elementary school, questioning him. The Secret Service - which deals with reports of counterfeitmoney - was notified.

"Outrageous," the boy's mother, Tiffany Kelly, wrote in an online petition, asking why a call was made to law enforcement, rather than "a call tomom."

In Prince George's County, school system officials said police got involved at Catherine T. Reed Elementary School in Lanham - where thesecond-graders had the play money - because of the way administrators reported the incident to school security offices: They called the money"counterfeit." Security personnel called police.

Jennifer Donelan, a county police spokeswoman, said police investigated and notified the Secret Service, as is protocol with possible counterfeitmoney. But the children were not arrested or questioned.

To read the complete article, see:
The money was fake. The police were real. It happened in an elementary school.(https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-money-was-fake-the-police-were-real-it-happened-in-an-elementary-school/2019/07/05/c2652b5c-704a-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html)