Science experiment gone bad

[Miss Chicken]

Kiera Wilmot got good grades and had a perfect behavior record. She wasn't the kind of kid you'd expect to find hauled away in handcuffs and expelled from school, but that's exactly what happened after an attempt at a science project went horribly wrong.

On 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.

According to WTSP, Wilmot told police that she was merely conducting a science experiment. Though her teachers knew nothing of the specific project, her principal seems to agree.

"She made a bad choice. Honestly, I don't think she meant to ever hurt anyone," principal Ron Pritchard told the station. "She wanted to see what would happen [when the chemicals mixed] and was shocked by what it did. Her mother is shocked, too."

After the explosion Wilmot was taken into custody by a school resources officer and charged with possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device. She will be tried as an adult.

Rest of story here

Police report of the incident

I am asking people here if they think she is being treated too harshly or not.

[Candlelight]

Tough call. On one hand there could be no reason to believe she was doing anything other than a science experiment, yet if she didn't tell any teachers she was about to play with dangerous chemicals that's a pretty stupid thing to do.

Don't know. On the fence for this one.

[iguana_tonante]

With all the crap I did in school and at home mixing up stuff just to see what would happen, I should have been branded a terrorist and public enemy number one.

For fuck's sake.

[Miss Chicken]

I think that the school should punish her to show her and other students that doing such experiments is totally unacceptable.

However I think the police charges, especially if they try her as an adult, is going way too far.

[Sephiroth]

waaaaaaay too overboard, give her detention for mixing chems w/o supervision and be done with it.

[YellowSubmarine]

I don't see a reason to punish her at all. The worst that you could ask her to do is discuss her next experiments with her teachers beforehand. Some of them could indeed be dangerous and harm somebody, and she would learn more if she is given some hints on what she's doing. Apart from that, experimenting and learning should be encouraged, not discouraged. Whether she is doing it for fun or to learn, good for her. Some supervision is the only thing that seemed to be missing here, and she should be advised about it, although I think she learnt that part herself, and everything else would be an overreaction.

Treating this as something akin to terrorism certainly deserves an award for most ridiculous and laughable reaction. And shouldn't a destructive device be capable of, you know, destructing things? From the description, me sitting on things is more destructive.

[Tora Ziyal]

It sounds to me like her main "crimes" were being curious and naive. The adult felony charge is ridiculous. So is expelling her. I'm sure the school could come up with a more constructive form of discipline.

[Miss Chicken]

YellowSubmarine wrote:

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I don't see a reason to punish her at all. The worst that you could ask her to do is discuss her next experiments with her teachers beforehand. Some of them could indeed be dangerous and harm somebody, and she would learn more if she is given some hints on what she's doing. Apart from that, experimenting and learning should be encouraged, not discouraged. Whether she is doing it for fun or to learn, good for her. Some supervision is the only thing that seemed to be missing here, and she should be advised about it, although I think she learnt that part herself, and everything else would be an overreaction.

Treating this as something akin to terrorism certainly deserves an award for most ridiculous and laughable reaction. And shouldn't a destructive device be capable of, you know, destructing things? From the description, me sitting on things is more destructive.

I really think she should have done the experiment in her own yard rather than at school. She had no real reason to do it at school and I think the school has every right to forbid private experiments on school grounds. Because she had a good behaviour record I also think expelling her is wrong.

I guess I am a bit more wary than you. Many years ago a boy did an experiment in a school in Hobart and manage not only to blow up his classroom but blow his own hand off as well. It was fortunate that he was the only child in the classroom (some other children walking by outside received minor cuts from flying glass from the windows).

[Candlelight]

I think coming straight after the Boston incidents and the fertilizer explosion in Texas police want to make sure this isn't something more than what she says it is.

Probably.

[SeerSGB]

Sephiroth wrote:

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waaaaaaay too overboard, give her detention for mixing chems w/o supervision and be done with it.

^ This. Seems to me there was no more behind than "I wonder what these will do". I'll grant a lack of foresight to look up the chemicals and get the basic info on what they could react with, but I doubt she was out to torch the place.

iguana_tonante wrote:

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With all the crap I did in school and at home mixing up stuff just to see what would happen, I should have been branded a terrorist and public enemy number one.

For fuck's sake.

Just what I was thinking. Going by the logic shown in the article, nearly every highschool chem-1 class is a terrorist breeding ground. Hell, my AP Agri-Science class would be on a fucking no-fly list: Our instructor showed us how to use black powder to blast stumps.

[J. Allen]

16 year old who was well behaved and had good grades. Science experiment goes wrong, so they:

*Named her publicly (she's a minor) as part of a criminal investigation.
*Expelled her from school.
*Made her face felony arrest charges.

Fuck yeah, they went overboard and are treating her too harshly. Of course, this is Florida, so god only knows what will happen to her.

[Kestrel]

It's a fucking bullshit response by the school and district and police. Shameful.

[Jimi_James]

This could be solved with detention at most and talking to the student about how she should have informed someone at school what she was doing. Also, why didn't the science teacher know what her project was about and speak to her about the possible dangers of mixing various chemicals?

Regardless, pressing criminal charges and expelling the student are both way overboard. At the very least take into account her intent and her past conduct at school. If she'd been a trouble maker and was planning on hurting someone, then yeah ok, expel her and press charges. But that clearly isn't the case.

This seems like another instance of a close minded zero tolerance policy where the actual extenuating circumstances of the situation haven't been taken into account.

[J. Allen]

Jimi_James wrote:

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This could be solved with detention at most and talking to the student about how she should have informed someone at school what she was doing. Also, why didn't the science teacher know what her project was about and speak to her about the possible dangers of mixing various chemicals?

Regardless, pressing criminal charges and expelling the student are both way overboard. At the very least take into account her intent and her past conduct at school. If she'd been a trouble maker and was planning on hurting someone, then yeah ok, expel her and press charges. But that clearly isn't the case.

This seems like another instance of a close minded zero tolerance policy where the actual extenuating circumstances of the situation haven't been taken into account.

I've said it before, but Zero Tolerance is bullshit.

[Mutenroshi]

It's The War on Science™!