How A Science Experiment Got A Student Arrested

From YouTube:

This is the story of Kiera Wilmot, who in her efforts to further her education, found herself caught up in the school-to-prison pipeline — arrested for a science experiment due to unfair disciplinary policies run without reason or conscious. While Kiera was eventually allowed to return to school and will graduate from high school in June 2014, no student should have to go through what she went through just to explore her love of science.

      
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Stephen Hahn
10 years ago

I have had a teacher who Preformed a similar experiment in class. Should the teacher have been arrested?

daveburton
10 years ago

Beware of the “spin.” The comments here are instructive:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/cleared-charges-honor-student-space-camp/story?id=19236561

E.g., this one, by “George Jetson”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/cleared-charges-honor-student-space-camp/story?id=19236561#comment-906376789

Here’s an excerpt: “…If you looked into the story at all and found out what she did, you wouldn’t be for her getting any kind of scholarship. She brought a bottle and chemicals to school that are very common and very reactive. The chemical “experiment” is EXACTLY the one used in bottle bombs… which is what she made. She created a pressurized bottle of boiling liquid and gases and was very lucky no one was harmed or property damaged. She LITERALLY made a bottle bomb, and in her childish ignorance, brought it to school and called it a science experiment that absolutely NO faculty knew about or authorized. All the media outlets, especially the ones here in Florida, have played this off as an experiment gone awry , and I have no knowledge of why it has gotten this spin…”

daveburton
10 years ago
Reply to  daveburton

It’s hard to argue with the fact that school authorities overreacted by siccing the cops on her, and that the cops and DA wildly overreacted by charging her with two felonies. I mean, come on, kids do stupid, dangerous things all the time, often much worse than this little toy “bottle bomb,” which was probably less powerful and dangerous than an Estes rocket, and a thousand times less dangerous than the car she probably drove to school.

Punishment for such an offense may be appropriate, but it shouldn’t be wildly out of proportion to the offense. If there was evidence that she was trying to hurt someone or burn down the school, then sure, throw the book at her. But AFAIK nobody has alleged that.

To me, her apparent lying seems like a greater sin than making a little toy “bottle bomb.”