The New Mexico Supreme Court recently weighed what it means to “use” a deadly weapon and whether a student could be found to have committed aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a school employee, despite never pointing, brandishing or injuring anyone with the BB gun he brought to school.

The court filed its opinion last week, upholding a 12-year-old boy’s adjudication as delinquent based on statements he made in the principal’s office when school officials believed he was in possession of a weapon.