16-Year-Old Girl Arrested and Charged With a Felony For Science Project Mistake

AlterNet – by Steven Hsieh

A Florida teen with an exemplary record is facing federal charges after conducting what a classmate calls “a science project gone bad.”

16-year-old Kiera Wilmot is accused of mixing housing chemicals in a small water bottle at Bartow High School, causing the cap to fly off and produce a bit of smoke. The experiment was conducted outdoors, no property was damaged, and no one was injured.  

Not long after Wilmot’s experiment, authorities arrested her and charged her with “possession/discharge of a weapon on school property and discharging a destructive device,” according to WTSP-TV. The school district proceeded to expel Wilmot for handling the “dangerous weapon,” also known as a water bottle. She will have to complete her high school education through an expulsion program.

Friends and staffers, including the school principal, came to Wilmot’s defense, telling media that authorities arrested an upstanding student who meant no harm.

“She is a good kid,” principal Ron Richard told WTSP-TV. “She has never been in trouble before. Ever.”

“She just wanted to see what happened to those chemicals in the bottle,” a classmate added. “Now, look what happened.”

Polk County Schools stands by its decision to expel Wilmot, asserting in a statement, “there are consequences to actions,” and calling Wilmot’s experiment a “serious breach of conduct.”

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/16-year-old-girl-arrested-and-charged-felony-science-project-mistake

11 thoughts on “16-Year-Old Girl Arrested and Charged With a Felony For Science Project Mistake

  1. Poor kid has to be traumatized simply because teachers and administraters have no common sense. She needs to get a good Lawyer and financially break this school system. It is the only way they can learn to quit acting so damn stupid!

  2. It’s so hard to believe that it has come to this! When I was in grade school, I remember our teacher intentionally mixing vinegar and baking soda into a capped bottle so that we could watch the top blow off! We are allowing the progs to turn us all into automatonic zombie sheeple.

  3. Sheesh!! OMG!! You’d swear this was satire. I can’t even tell the difference these days. This is absolutely absurd. So now we can’t experiment in school or make mistakes. Otherwise, we will get arrested? I thought we were taught to learn from our mistakes. Now we get arrested for them? What school is this? BF Skinner’s schooling? I think so.

  4. This is embarrassingly stupid.

    Hopefully, one positive aspect of this stupidity is that the girl understands
    full well the government isn’t there as her servant but her master.

    -flek

  5. Whoever called the police should be arrested for stupidity. This is the kind of asinine stupidity that drives calm, civilized people to angry rebellion. Then again, that is what the United States needs these days.

  6. Mistakes are the best way to learn. No authoritarian likes a population that is smarter than it. They like them to be trained, compliant, and to submit when told.

  7. Surely now is the time to do something about this kind of arrogant and ignorant attitude. Perhaps all the parents at that school should get together and throw their weight around to the extent possible, and if not possible, then withdraw their kids from that school and put them on home schooling.

    1. That was fun, JM.

      btw, the guy sitting next to me right now watched it too, then looked it up on the internet.

      Turns out that it’s the ASPARTAME in the Diet Coke that causes the violent reaction.

      Strangely enough, it can cause violent reactions in humans also.

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