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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
^ 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. 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.
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.
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.
Was anyone charged with a felony for knowingly breaking the law when playing with something far more dangerous than household chemicals, killing a bunch of people and levelling a school in a fertilizer plant explosion?
The kid was being a kid. The adults are being idiots. The extent of her punishment should be a dopey slap and a hearty, "Don't do that again. You're lucky you didn't kill yourself." I had a chemistry set when I was a kid a lot younger than her and I mixed everything I could get my hands on.
Jesus. She's being treated way too harshly. So the bottle cap popped up and some smoke came out. Wowsers. What an explosion! You can describe a Coke/Mentos reaction like that as well. Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK is wrong with your country?! Giving firearms to 5-year-olds and wondering why eventually somebody gets killed, and putting some naive student in handcuffs and expell her from school just because of some playing with household chemicals.
I wonder if schoolboys attempt to light their own farts in the US. Homeland Security might have to arrest everyone in possession of a colon as being a potential terrorist.
Nope. And I don't know. This is one of those moments that I feel a bit sad and embarrassed to be an American.