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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFlorida Teen Girl Charged With Felony After Science Experiment Goes Bad
Florida Teen Girl Charged With Felony After Science Experiment Goes Bad
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 ground of Bartow High School in Barton, 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.
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2013/04/florida_teen_girl_charged_with.php
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Lochloosa
(16,019 posts)BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)Flagrante
(138 posts)Drale
(7,932 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Helps explain a lot.
Do we know their party affiliation?
Could be Democratic, but I'm guessing otherwise.
barbtries
(28,702 posts)if there is such a connection. i hope someone's following the money over there.
bananas
(27,509 posts)Wow, thanks for that link, for anyone who didn't look at it, here it is:
Judges Plead Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit
At worst, Hillary Transue thought she might get a stern lecture when she appeared before a judge for building a spoof MySpace page mocking the assistant principal at her high school in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. She was a stellar student who had never been in trouble, and the page stated clearly at the bottom that it was just a joke.
Instead, the judge sentenced her to three months at a juvenile detention center on a charge of harassment.
She was handcuffed and taken away as her stunned parents stood by.
I felt like I had been thrown into some surreal sort of nightmare, said Hillary, 17, who was sentenced in 2007. All I wanted to know was how this could be fair and why the judge would do such a thing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
7 years? That's it, this judge should get a minimum of 20 years. She has destroyed people's lives. The Judge and the people in charge of those two companies should never been heard from again and should be black listed to the point were they will never do anything more than flip burgers again. This is possibly the worst thing I've ever heard a judge do.
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)Exhibit 100,037 in ways to disenfranchise and lock up minorities in America.
rurallib
(62,346 posts)barbtries
(28,702 posts)motherfucking racist FUCKS.
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)with Coke and sugar.
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)So often this idiotic shit seems to happen in Florida. Is there something in the water down there that takes away the ability to think critically?
A felony charge for a high school student that didn't hurt or even intend to hurt anyone or cause damage.
1monster
(11,012 posts)It isn't just Florida. It's anywhere cops are used as a discipline measure in the schools. And quite often, once the resource officer is involved, the school administrators have no say in the outcome of a situation.
SunSeeker
(51,377 posts)benld74
(9,889 posts)spanone
(135,636 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,892 posts)She is going to be charged as an adult even thought she is 16. Yet, 17 year old boys who rape unconscious girls are charged as juveniles.
Why am I not surprised!
ArcticFox
(1,249 posts)historylovr
(1,557 posts)davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I believe one of the two were 16, and the other one was 17 in that case.
I hope this is dropped or they at least consider a Juvenal court
Shankapotomus
(4,840 posts)serve as a police officer in the state of Florida???? How?
"What? Five year old having a temper tantrum??? Get the cuffs, Jim Bob!!! Looks like we got a wild one!" "What? Some one jumped on stage at a party and is having a little too much fun??? Get the taser, Jim Bob!!! This could get ugly!!!" "What? Accident at the school? Black girl? Grab them there cuffs, Jim Bob, time to needlessly shame another brown person."
Is it so hard to extricate yourself out of that line of work in Florida that you need to support the perpetuation of jack booted thuggery and injustice by your participation in it? I'd rather eat out of a fucking dumpster!!!
FUCK THE FLORIDA JUSTICE SYSTEM!!! FUCK YOU!!!!
progressoid
(49,827 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)It's really ridiculous. This was a legitimate mistake. Poor girl.
baldguy
(36,649 posts)That's why they made us wear lab coats & goggles. You could hear the *pops* of the stoppers coming off the flasks from anywhere in the west wing of the school.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)and then wracked his nuts (badly) with the thing in front of the whole class. he doubled over and fell on the floor while we laughed.
it was awesome - he sustained no permanent injuries, as far as I know.
hunter
(38,264 posts)I'm glad I'm not a kid today.
Things I brought to school:
My pocket knife.
X-acto knives and box cutters.
Estes rockets and ignitors. (We had an after school rocketry club.)
And not to let the teacher know, snappers, firecrackers, cherry bombs, and M-80s.
We mostly had sense enough not to play with them during school, but not always.
MellowYellow
(35 posts)it yet now everyone demands everything be banned for our safety. It's ashame that people are so terrified of the world around them that they can't allow kids to be kids anymore. More kids have drown or been hit by cars than killed by any of the things you mentioned. Maybe we should ban pools and cars. What happened to the world?
malthaussen
(17,066 posts)... loaded with blanks. To be used in the school play. All that happened was the principal locked it in his desk until the play started. But that was 40 years ago.
-- Mal
1monster
(11,012 posts)did the same. They both pointed the TOY PROP GUNS at other students. (The class was in the prop room tidying it up on the teacher's instructions.)
My son was threatened with expulsion and the first kid was required to write an affidavit on how scary my son was... (The principal was a bully and should never have been allowed to be near children, let alone be a principal...)
I took my kids out of that school the next day.
kudzu22
(1,273 posts)Probably not what she expected to learn, though.
Initech
(99,915 posts)Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Boy I'd love to see the constitutionality of these bullshit zero tolerance policies brought before SCOTUS.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)Adults in authority in FL are fucking idiots.
Apophis
(1,407 posts)And zero tolerance rules in school go a bit overboard, imo.
Dr. Strange
(25,898 posts)An explosion program? Isn't that what caused the problem in the first place?
nolabear
(41,915 posts)Teaching spelling would be so, so, ordinary.
Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)I have those two lines on my clipboard, but was checking to see who else caught them first.
SamKnause
(13,043 posts)There is zero common sense in this country.
I am beginning to think the entire country has gone insane.
Renew Deal
(81,802 posts)Just a waste of time and money
leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)Initech
(99,915 posts)If I were that family I'd take the case all the way to SCOTUS.
jmowreader
(50,453 posts)...is there anyone here who wouldn't have been sent to jail for doing that? Blowing shit up is the best part of chem class.
Our worst terrorist was the guy who wiped up nitric acid with a roll of paper towels. He's head of the computer science department at Pacific Lutheran University now.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)It was the only reason many of the students showed up to class. So now students are jailed for what was once a child's chemistry kit?
TheMadMonk
(6,187 posts)Dash87
(3,220 posts)We have become an idiot society that forces non-success. This is worthy of detention, not ruining her life and producing another life long criminal who would otherwise use their intelligence to contribute to society.
Another soul to feed the hungry private prison system, it seems.
Blue Owl
(49,934 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)Iggo
(47,489 posts)lpbk2713
(42,696 posts)At the very least, the result of all this will be her failing the school year.
This is so stupid it's unbelievable. Her teachers should share some of
the blame for not knowing what she was doing.
ramapo
(4,585 posts)I swear the majority of this once great country is a land of idiots, by idiots, and for idiots.
Is there no sense left?
Moostache
(9,895 posts)Idiocracy was created as a spoof...I am beyond sad to see it becoming a goddamn documentary in my own lifetime.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,280 posts)Sometimes we blew stuff up (though not very dramatically) in our actual science classes. Nobody ever got hurt, or arrested. Instead, we learned what kinds of chemicals should not be mixed together.
SwissTony
(2,560 posts)Chemistry class was for doing what we were supposed to doing, followed by our own variations. We just stayed close to the tap in case we had to was something painful off our hands.
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)and when we had enough we would sneak into the boiler room and toss them into the fire-thingie...and then wait for the BOOM...
In today's climate we would have all been in jail..
TheMadMonk
(6,187 posts)...them in a single box and then commiting a minor act of "arson". One of us, Andy, ended up with a reverse mohawk. Didn't stop us doing it. Did learn to count better.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)amurikkkan justice at it's best. amurikans have become exceedingly stupid. How do I know? Bachman, king, cruz, snyder romshits 47% ect ect ect got the votes from .....
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)conducted to determine the student's intent with her 'experiment'. If she knew what the results were going to be from this experiment, then she should be punished, although I think maybe the school should handle it instead of the courts. If she was just a stupid teen who used poor judgement and didn't really know what she was doing, well then definately she should not be prosecuted by the courts.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)earth sciences, and the involved some basic chemistry. One kid in my class, who was sort of the class Imp From Hell (but who had a crush on me), was fooling around one day with a test tube and bunsen burner and the cork flew out of the tube and hit one of the ceiling fluorescent light fixtures, causing a rather nifty flash and bang.
He wasn't punished in any way that I knew of. The teacher had stepped out of the room for a second and didn't see what happened. We all laughed, everyone denied knowing what happened, and that was the end of it.
Same kid later in the year jumped up when exiting the same room and touched the clock above the door, knocking it off the wall, whereupon it fell to the floor and broke. I think he might have gotten a minor reprimand for that one.
That very same kid went to college, joined the Navy, went to medical school, became a career Navy physician, retired, and is now a highly respected cardiovascular surgeon in the Midwest, happily married, and a normal, productive citizen.
So this BS about this girl is just that: BS. Shame on those people.
Stretch714
(90 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)And this is just one more example.
I seriously hope that Ms. Wilmot doesn't end up actually being convicted of anything serious; she didn't actually harm anybody(except possibly herself), and she had NO malicious intent whatsoever.....damn, this sucks.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,280 posts)Then, you could blow stuff up in a chemistry class without going to jail.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)But I'm talking about the harsh punishments being meted out to this kid. At the very least, this is a "return" of sorts to at least a very mythologized version of the 1950s.
Jennicut
(25,415 posts)stuff when I was in high school and no one cared, at all. I remember a boy mixing all kinds of stuff in chemistry class. My daughters are elementary school age now and this zero tolerance crap scares me. I think people meant well in reaction to bad behavior but it just goes too far now.
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)Is it an "experiment" if you knowingly mix chemicals together that will cause a bottle to pop?
tclambert
(11,080 posts)If she mixed muriatic acid and aluminum foil as some of us suspect, she would have been OK if she hadn't put the cap on the bottle. The reaction produces hydrogen gas and heat. If she left the top off, the hydrogen and much of the heat would have escaped . . . harmlessly. Putting the cap on trapped the hydrogen and allowed the heat and pressure to build up. Result: unexpected POP! strong enough to blow the cap off the bottle.
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)barbtries
(28,702 posts)in this country these days?!
outrageous.
no damage, no injuries. my gawd.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)Tyrs WolfDaemon
(2,289 posts)I hope you don't mind if I save it
Here is some Artic Fox kits in exchange
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)No joke, I think it really does. Here's their definition:
Any explosive or incendiary device, as defined in Title 18 USC, Section 921: bomb, grenade, rocket, missile, mine, or other device with a charge of more than four ounces;
Any weapon designed or intended to cause death or serious bodily injury through the release, dissemination, or impact of toxic or poisonous chemicals or their precursors;
Any weapon involving a disease organism; or
Any weapon designed to release radiation or radioactivity at a level dangerous to human life.
#1 This was an explosive device and I bet its charge was more than 4 oz.
#2 Not clear she had any intent. If she did, it was a WMD.
#3, #4 Did not involve a disease organism or radiation, I presume.
But on the basis of #1, they could call this a WMD.
SwissTony
(2,560 posts)Sure, this kid could have done herself an injury, but it was hardly going to devastate an entire suburb.
I'm not criticising you, but the definition seems ridiculous.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)with some gun powder is a WMD. It was a terrible thing that caused pain, suffering, sadness, and even several deaths. But it wasn't a WMD.
The FBI intentionally developed this vague definition so that they could apply it whenever it suited their needs. Welcome to the Patriot Act nation.
Warpy
(110,913 posts)We've got too many cops in too many of the wrong places who are too bored with absolutely nothing to do.
Either we give those bozos some busywork or we have to continue reading bogus stories like this one.
I can't see any jury convicting this kid. I sure as hell wouldn't vote to convict her. She was just caught in the act of being a kid.
indepat
(20,899 posts)tclambert
(11,080 posts)Muriatic acid (aka hydrochloric acid) plus aluminum:
Go to 2:16 for the bang.
PS. Girls, where were your safety goggles?
PPS. Do not put HCl into an old soda can:
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)TNNurse
(6,911 posts)Our country is full of idiots. There was no damage, no one was hurt......
n2doc
(47,953 posts)The Wizard
(12,482 posts)someone accidentally over inflates a balloon and it pops, Jail?
Florida, the state that put George Bush in the White House which was the impetus for this website.
xocet
(3,870 posts)The local news video is here:
Melanie Michael
8:20 PM, Apr 23, 2013
BARTOW, Florida - No one ever expected to see a mug shot from 16-year-old Kiera Wilmot.
The teenager is known among staff for her exemplary record at Bartow High School and her status as a good student.
"She is a good kid," said principal Ron Pritchard. "She has never been in trouble before. Ever."
All of that changed on Monday morning.
...
http://www.wtsp.com/news/reporter/article/312878/79/Teen-girl-arrested-for-science-project-gone-bad
Bartow, FL, Police Chief: http://www.cityofbartow.net/index.aspx?page=392
Complaint Form: http://www.cityofbartow.net/index.aspx?recordid=103&page=18
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)and killing the dog the woman got to help protect them?
Cops basically said "tough shit-- you gotta catch him in the act"
So she got a surveillance system and caught him on video, and the answer seems to be-- "OK, find out who he is"
But, hey, jailing a cute teenager for being curious isn't nearly as much work.
http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/289853/19/Video-captures-man-brutalizing-having-sex-with-horse
xocet
(3,870 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)derby378
(30,252 posts)Zero Tolerance is your god now. Bow down, fucker...
Man, am I pissed off after reading that OP. Seriously, that poor girl. Then again, this is teabagger country...
Glimmer of Hope
(5,823 posts)Bucky
(53,795 posts)before you know it, she'll be formulating theses, testing hypotheses, isolating control groups... where does the madness end?!?
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)a problem when young people are fast-tracked into the system for innocuous behaviors and accidents. Children and teens are supposed to learn from their mistakes. They are not supposed to be subject to arrest and prosecution when it clearly isn't necessary.
Are the schools in Florida saying they are totally incompetent or is everyone merely complicit with the impetus of a for-profit prison system that is growing by leaps and bounds?
We have a host of issues to push back and face as the authoritarians and their minions continue to influence and degrade our justice system and economy, but this one is extremely important in the sense that it is creating ominous social problems for us down the road.
Plus, none of us, no matter how safe and secure we may feel or how we imagine that the system is working for us, is immune. Well, one exception is if we are wealthy enough to utilize private schools and also afford good legal counsel for our children if they do get into a legal hassle.
CincyDem
(6,283 posts)...committing science in Florida. We'll know that first comes science, then comes evolution, and then - well - next thing ya know she's goin' be saying that nice young couple with a beard can't really be riding that dinosaur. All hell will break lose down there then.
On a more serious note - what is with the hyperbole. " ...science experiment gone horribly wrong..."
Horribly? Really - is that the word you want to use here.
Horrible is when you stand at the tropical fish tank in the bio-lab looking at all the bright color fish and you ask "what would happen if I throw this half pound chunk of pure sodium in there?". Hint - you'll want to step back quickly from the tank and see if the cafeteria has any tartar sauce to go with the fish sticks you're about to make. That's horrible.
This sounds like a simply little unexpected "exotherm". Seriously, starting with only 8oz of water, how can it be much more.
Get this girl back in the classroom. WTF is wrong with these people.
Turbineguy
(37,212 posts)It's Florida. Too bad the students without an imagination or curiosity forgot to bring their guns.
csziggy
(34,120 posts)On two different occasions and caused the evacuation of the high school. Once it was a chlorine based gas, the second time it was iodine based.
No one was hurt, no one was charged with a crime. The young man (aka "class clown" was banned from chem lab and had to get his grade in the class solely from written exams.
LiberalFighter
(50,504 posts)They should mind their efn business about things they don't know anything about.
Th1onein
(8,514 posts)Here's the school's number: (863) 534-7400. Ronald Pritchard is the principal. Here's his email: ronald.pritchard@polk-fl.net
Dr. John Stewart is the Superintendent of the Polk County School District, which Bartow High School is a part of, and that number is: 863-534-0500.
CALL THEM.
Arkana
(24,347 posts)He should take this case to the Guardians of Oa then. Intergalactic law supercedes state law!
Th1onein
(8,514 posts)First of all, I don't know what you're talking about.
Second, I don't know what you're talking about.
Third, you should be up in arms about this and actually DO something about it, even if it's only making a few phone calls. It's obvious you're doing SOMETHING, but how useful it is.....Why BOTHER?
muriel_volestrangler
(101,154 posts)Who knew there were special programs for pupils involved in explosions?
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)Captain Stern
(2,197 posts)But it does sound like what she did shouldn't warrant any more than a little after-school detention.
Zero-tolerance policies pretty much cut the legs out from under any adults that would actually look at things on a case-by-case basis. I'm guessing if the Principal or teachers had applied their own personal discretion, they would have put their jobs at risk for not following "policy", regardless of how reasonable their actions were.
Javaman
(62,442 posts)My brain is sad.
mwooldri
(10,291 posts)Your comment just pushed the memory I have of setting my own hair on fire by leaning over a Bunsen burner in science class (it was chemistry that term).
But the OP - the way it is being handled is way over the top. It seems the muggles have something to fear from our future wizards...
I hope this whole nonsense is cleaned up and all charges dismissed. And hopefully some bright university will offer her a chemistry scholarship. And blow more things up - in a controlled environment of course.
Javaman
(62,442 posts)I had seen other things flame up in chemistry but never hair.
mwooldri
(10,291 posts)Mind this was back in 1990, and yes the teachers were blowing stuff up too.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)lebkuchen
(10,716 posts)noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)totally overkill. no one was hurt, and it is not clear that she intended to hurt anyone. she deserves a reprimand, not to have her entire life destroyed. america: where we take regular people and turn them into fodder for our for-profit prison system!
levp
(188 posts)As I posted in Facebook comments on that TV station's page:
I was born in the Soviet Union, and my parents were teaching me all the time not to say (or do) anything that could be even remotely misconstrued.
But even then, I happened to do EXACTLY the same thing - mixed some chemicals together in our school's chemistry lab. There was a significant bang and a lot of white powder on and around my desk. The only punishment was F in chemistry (admittedly, well deserved).
Again, that was in Soviet Union. We ought to be better than that, not worse. What are we going to do after the next shooting or attack? Because you know it and I know it - it is not a question of "if", it is a question of "when".
We also used to play WWII games, shooting Nazis left and right. During a school recess at that! These days, kindergarten students are arrested for making a gun sign with their fingers. What's next?
Can't remember what came of it, but I heard about a kid (was in kindergarten I think.) who got suspended... Because he took a bite out of a poptart, thus making it look sorta like a gun.
Anyway, in my chem class our teacher actually let us make explosives to demonstrate to everyone else in the class. He gave us a week and said come up with somethink explosive to demonstrate. Only condition that we had to tell him what we planned to demonstrate, just to make sure we didn't accidentally come up with something that would make a really really big boom.
I ended up making a variant of Thermite - Ended up adding stuff to it to make it like a flash-bang.
Whats ironic is that it's pretty fucking easy to make explosives. Anyone with even basic chemistry knowledge can build one.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)My dumbass friends and I made pipe bombs from PVC pipes and caps and small film canister ('member those?!) explosives out of black powder and cheap fuses in junior high. Used to set them off in an old quarry just to hear the boom and see shit fly. Kids are stupid.
sakabatou
(42,083 posts)The Wizard
(12,482 posts)Next thing you know the smoking gun is a mushroom cloud. Hey, it worked for the Bush cartel.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)davidn3600
(6,342 posts)It's too mechanical. There is no common sense. And we've passed way too many zero tolerance and 3-strike laws. Our prisons are filling up. We got the largest prison population in the world. And everyone keeps saying that the sentences are still not long enough.
And it's not solving a damn thing. We got more gangsters coming out of prison than going in.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)Goddamn morons should all be horsewhipped in the public square.
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)fucking school authorities losing their minds and forgetting what common sense means.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,129 posts)Alcibiades
(5,061 posts)and that five year old actually killed someone, for example, his two year old sister, there would be no charges.
hack89
(39,171 posts)what was she thinking?