The utterance favored by bungling lab assistant Beaker of "The Muppet Show" has been banned at a school in the US.

Principal Thomas Murray, of Danvers High School in Massachusetts, claims students said it to interrupt school as part of a disruption planned using Facebook.

The Salem News reports that parents recently got an automated call about "Meep!" from Murray. He warned them that students who said or displayed the word at school could be suspended.

Murray says the warning was needed because students didn't heed his "reasonable request" to stop the meeping.

Danvers High sophomore Melanie Crane says it doesn't mean anything in particular.

On her website lawyer Theodora Michaels claims that she has now been reported to the police after sending the principal an email saying 'Meep'.