A 9-year-old North Carolina boy was reportedly told by school officials last week not to bring his My Little Pony bag to school, as they feared he would be made fun of.

Grayson Bruce is a fan of the decades-old show franchise, but since most of the show’s fans are girls, he’s been made fun of for his bag. Grayson told WLOS, an ABC affiliate in Western North Carolina, that his classmates have been bullying him. Grayson said he did start using a Rainbow Dash bag, but that didn’t stop the bullying.

Noreen Bruce, his mother, told the station that the school told him not to bring the bag any more, calling it a “trigger for bullying.”

Buncombe County School officials refused to be interviewed for the story, but they told WLOS that the decision was to “immediately address a situation that had created a disruption in the classroom.”

As Grayson’s story began circulating on the web, he started gaining support, notes The Huffington Post. A Change.org petition now has 5,400 signatures from people who all want to see Grayson be allowed to take his bag to school. The Support For Grayson Facebook page has garnered 32,200 likes.

image courtesy of Amazon