Not what the teenager did, but how the adults responded. If the law demands her expulsion and that she be charged with felonies, then "the law is a ass!":
BARSTOW, Fla. — A Florida teenager with an “exemplary record” was arrested and expelled from her high school for conducting a science experiment which had the wrong results. Kiera Wilmot, a student at Bartow High School, is facing two felony charges for the incident, which includes making or attempting to make a destructive device. She had mixed toilet bowl cleaner and pieces of aluminum foil in a tiny water bottle.
Wilmot told police she thought the concoction would result in a little smoke. Instead, the bottle exploded, according to the Barstow Police Department report, A spokesperson for the Florida State Attorney’s office said the case is currently under investigation and would not be commenting further.
The 16-year-old was in the school yard working on the experiment, according to the police report. The project was not part of a class assignment and no one was injured in the incident. Bartow High School Principal Ron Pritchard told television station WTSP that Wilmot had an exemplary record and she is known around campus as a good student.
“She’s is a good kid,” the principal said. “she has never been in trouble before. Ever.”
According to the police report, Wilmot told police she was in no way trying to hurt anyone or create a disruption of school. The principal agreed and said she simply made a bad decision.
“Honestly, I don’t think she meant to ever hurt anyone,” he told the television station. “She wanted to see what would happen when the chemicals mixed and was shocked by what it did. Her mother is shocked, too.”
The principal said the young lady was completely up front and honest about what happened.
“She didn’t run or try to hide the truth,” he said. Nevertheless, the school district called the police, had her arrested and expelled her from school.
From Change.org (sign the petition):
Kiera Wilmot has been described as an exemplary student and a wonderful young woman.
Why is it then that an experiment gone wrong is being dealt with by the police and school as a felony offense?
According to the Miami Times: "7 a.m. on Monday, the 16 year-old mixed some common household chemicals in a small 8 oz water bottle on the grounds of Bartow High School in Bartow, Florida. The reaction caused a small explosion that caused the top to pop up and produced some smoke. No one was hurt and no damage was caused."
The principal has said that that he doesn't believe she had any malicious intentions. Yet she now faces two felony charges as an adult. These include making, possessing or discharging a destructive device and with possessing or discharging weapons on school grounds!
"...the charges have not yet been filed and this means that Florida State Attorney Jerry Hill and Assistant State Attorney Tammy Glotfelty have an opportunity to the right thing, use common sense, and drop these charges against Kiera."
Comments:
Hannah Eiseman-Renyard LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
I feel compelled to write to you, all the way from London, England, to let you know I am disgusted by your criminalization of a good student's natural curiosity.
No one was harmed. No intention to harm was there. There was no 'discharge of a weapon' there was a pop sound and some smoke. I do worse than that when cooking dinner sometimes.
Your reaction is disproportionate, draconian and disgraceful.
By ensuring this student has a criminal record you have given her a life sentence as a second class citizen. You said Kiera Wilmot made 'a bad choice'. Sir, your criminalisation of your student - despite understanding she had no ill intent - is a bad choice. Kiera Wilmot did not do anything with the gravitas of making 'a choice' - she was just being a normal 16 year old in a science laboratory.
Rachel Popkin SEATTLE, WA
Because my friends and I did similar experiments and worse when we were 16. Ten years later, we are scientists, engineers, and medical students.
Kiera displayed natural curiousity that all young scientists display. Her life should not be ruined because of it.
13 comments:
The first rule of law enforcement of any kind should be, "Use common sense." Alas, too often it's not.
About three years ago there was an incident, also in Florida IIRC, at an elementary school, where a little boy impulsively kissed a girl during recess. He didn't throw her on the ground, didn't grab her, didn't terrorize her. He just leaned toward her and kissed her on the cheek.
A playground monitor saw this and noted a little commotion around the boy and girl that ensued ("Woohoo!), and immediately hauled the little miscreant off to the principal's office. Next thing you know, the boy's parent was summoned to take him home. He was expelled, labeled a sexual predator under a school district rule supposedly governing such misdeeds. His parents were informed they would have to get counseling for him at their expense before he would be readmitted. Local parents complained to the school district, which at first refused to do anything. After the story made national news, IIRC, the school district made the principal back down, the counseling requirement was dropped and the boy's record was expunged of his supposedly evil misbehavior.
That case and the one against this inquisitive high school student are of a piece: both reveal an incredible inability to apply common sense on the part of school administrators in understanding and dealing with young people. If the local prosecutor is worth his weight in unserved summonses, he'll drop the case and make a public statement the school authorities involved will be a long time living down.
BTW, some clown in my high school made a stink bomb in science class that was so powerful the room had to be cleared and couldn't be used for two days. It was a prank. He was given a stern lecture, suspended for a few days and had to show up for an hourlong after-school study hall for a couple of weeks. The kid didn't play any more pranks at school after that. He wasn't evil; he just got too full of himself. I think the school handled it about right.
It appears to me school authorities in Florida need some kind of comprehensive review regarding rules and discipline, folowed by mandatory remedial education for themselves in when and how to apply common sense to these matters.
"It appears to me school authorities in Florida need some kind of comprehensive review regarding rules and discipline, folowed by mandatory remedial education for themselves in when and how to apply common sense to these matters."
The two stories, the one about the child who kissed a little girl in the school yard (remember that one), and the one featured in this post, show that adults (at least the ones involved in these instances) are pathetic individuals who are robotic in their brain functioning--they didn't use common sense.
I don't care what the law says, "the law is a ass" in this case.
I gaurentee every adult involved in this bit of ignorance pulled the same type of stuff when they were in school. I bet they all bragged about it as adults. it is not the meek but the assholes and idiots that have inherited the earth.
Once again, my premise that assholes always seem to end up in charge is proven correct.
It is reasonable given our current state of society to investigate situations like this, beginning with school administrators who posses common sense as well as intellegence.
Case closed.
Or at least it should be (have been).
I couldn't agree with you more about this case, Ms Shaw.
Believe it or not Rush Limbaugh devoted a segment to expressing the same level of outrage over a very similar incident that occurred elsewhere -- a perfectly good, decent, student with an unblemished record arrested and expelled for no good reason. I'm sorry i can't remember the details. I try not to pay too much attention to this stuff, because it raises my BP to dangerously high levels.
The Draconian one-size-fits-all regulations are NEVER a good idea particularly when they involve children.
I've read of Kindergartners being subjected to arrest and suspension for bringing plastic toy guns to school, or Cub Scouts treated similarly for owning and carrying a Scout Knife. How asinine could you get?
Two things were killed off in the Sick-sties -- GOOD TASTE -and COMMON SENSE. I've mourned their loss ever since.
And thanks for using my favorite quote from Dickens. It comes from Oliver Twist and is said by the Beadle in reference to his impossibly shrewish wife. The whole thing goes, "If that be the law, THE LAW IS A' ASS!"
Probably a product of some "zero tolerance" policy.
How and why school boards (who are most often responsible) discarded common sense and grounding in basic child psychology isn't obvious to me at leas but there doesn't seem to be any returning to sanity.
How the hell did we get here?
I guarantee every adult involved in this bit of ignorance pulled the same type of stuff when they were in school.
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Hell, I remember when we were into rocketry and were mixing our own propellants weekends in the school yard.
To understand just how in the hell we got here Ducky requires a huge amount of self introspection. Not something that comes easy for the majority of people. Irrespective of political inclination.
ya, I saw this and posted on FB. Goddam ridiculous, asinine.
I blew somethimg up in my HS Chem lab.....wasn't very good on measuring grams of 'this' and grams of 'that'. Teacher got pissed and made me clean up the glass and the rest of the mess....... and that was that.
course, if she would have had a concealed carry permit and a glock.... gees, I guess that would have been OK.
It was a Drano bomb, one like many built by pranksters decades before her.
She knew exactly what she was doing.
Such a blot on her academic record will negative consequences when she applies to almost any college. Such a consequence would be unjust, of course. But applications are filtered by such matters as criminal records and expulsions from high school; many sorting the applications behave like (or are) robots and just look at the answer to the exclusion questions.
One day, back in 1961, a guy called Buzz dropped a test tube full of butyric acid in Chemistry lab. The horrible stench cleared the building.
He was the butt of adolescent humor for a while and a bit of an off-beat hero, but what would we make of him today?
You know, Osama won. He's made us a nation of cowards pissing away trillions on making us feel safe and throwing away our freedom with the bathwater. That's what he really wanted all along and we're too stupid to see it.
Zero tolerance is the epitaph of a free society and I have zero tolerance for it.
A zero tolerance rule has not made our schools safer; zero tolerance has criminalized normal childhood and adolescent behavior.
Apparently the adults who institute such rules in our public schools are idiots who haven't the slightest idea on how to deal with children and teens.
How did we get here?
Laziness.
It's difficult dealing with all the behaviors children and teens manifest as they mature. It's easier to treat all infractions of the rules with draconian punishments rather than sort out the mildly naughty from the very, very bad.
I hope in this teen's case people with common sense will step in and right this wrong that will do her incalculable harm for the rest of her life.
Anon, do you believe she deserves the punishment after reading the circumstances?
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