High School student Charged With Felonies for Bad Science Experiment

[Richard D]

Kiera Roslyn Wilmot, a 16-year-old Florida high school student, had everything going for her as a top-notch student at Bartow High School. But all that changed on Monday, April 23, when Wilmot was arrested and charged with two felonies for “possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device.” She has been expelled and will be tried as an adult.

It all sounds pretty scary until you get to the description of this so-called “device”: two household chemicals mixed into an eight-ounce plastic water bottle, which caused the top to pop off and created some smoke. That’s it. No one was hurt, no property was damaged.

Wilmot insisted she was just conducting a science experiment to determine how the two chemicals would react. After the pop, she didn’t run or hide. Her friends and even the principle of her school agree that it was simply a “science project gone bad.”

http://raniakhalek.com/2013/05/01/kiera-wilmot-16-arrested-expelled-and-charged-with-felonies-for-bad-science-experiment/

[newfie11]

1. Poor kid

This is going to far. This sounds like what is done in school labs ( if any exist anymore)

[Th1onein]

2. I posted this before; I'll post it again....YOU need to do something about this!

Here's the school's number: [phone]. Ronald Pritchard is the principal. Here's his email: [e-mail]

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.

[PDJane]

3. So, they are trying a sixteen year old A student as an adult....over a pop in the schoolyard.

You could make the school into a jail and skip the middleman.

It seems as though children are being trained to obey their overlords. I thought questioning and experimentation were part of the educational process.

[nakocal]

4. If she was white this would not even have been an issue

If she was white this would not even have been an issue, but since she is dark skinned the racists in Florida just crapped there pants.

[HereSince1628]

5. Dang, Mr Boom-boom Spencer could never have held his chemistry class!

he loved dropping refined sodium in water. He wasn't known as Mr Boom-boom for nothing!

[hack89]

6. Her mistake was to bring the chemicals from home

and not conducting her experiment in a classroom.

[NightWatcher]

7. Was this "science experiment" done in a science lab?

If not, she should have known better. If she's so smart she should realize what trouble she would get herself into by this prank.

Schools are not happy places anymore. If you bring a Tylenol to school, you'll get in trouble for drug possession. If you bring a plastic knife to cut your lunch, you'll get thrown out for weapons possession. This student should have known better.

[SidDithers]

8. Seeing how two chemicals react, by mixing them together...

is a really bad idea.

You should have a very good idea of what is going to happen, before pouring two chemicals together.

Too many mixtures of common household chemicals can turn into something very dangerous.

Sid