Chemistry teacher in CA makes nitro glycerin?

[Archae]

Just saw the video on ABC of the LA bomb squad blowing up a vial of nitro a chemistry teacher there made.

This isn't the first time she's been in trouble, she let a couple kids sniff chloroform.

:wtf:

[mysuzuki2]

1. I think this person may be showing a pattern of

poor judgement.

[Az Country]

18. Fine Line

The line of public acceptance of a cutting edge professional and perceived safety is easily crossed when dealing with chemistry and other high tech fields. Hands on lab work is vital to the education in these areas. Administrative review and oversight is needed to guide their faculty. The teacher was supervising and there was no apparent injury or damage to the students. She knew what she was doing and was attempting to give the students
experience and knowledge of what these chemicals are and what they can do. The teacher strikes me as being outstanding in her field. What is not defined is what the school policy is and if it was followed in conducting extra curricular demonstrations for the students who sign up for them. She had made a chemical which was made unstable when officers did something to make it explode. We do not yet know what the substance was or if there was a trigger or catalyst added to the substance by the officers. I am sure
that she has sparked a greater interest into the study of chemistry by her students and is doing a great job of it.
Our chemistry teacher in high school had us doing experiments with phosphor and my lab partner accidently got the material out from under the protective material covering it and once exposed to the air it began burning. It was a good experience to know what phosphor can do. No one was injured by it. We were warned to keep it coverered but my lab partner in trying to cut a small piece off the main had a minor accident. These experiences are good for students to learn what various elements and chemicals can do and how they react.
The teacher had to have some information relative to the potency of the substances she was working with and what safe levels of exposure to humans are. As there was no report of injury or adverse affects to the students in her class, it appears that the experiment was safe although apparently some parents or others without knowledge of chemistry and her expertise became concerned. What is up for discussion is what was the curriculum and what degree of academic freedom is granted to profesionals to provide for students. In order to make a judgement of the suitability of the experiment one needs to know what the curriculum was and what the teaching contract stated relative to extra curricular experiements and what the administrative procedure called for and if these were followed.
It is common practice to provide extra experiences to students with interest and ability at the college level and beyond. Providing extra level material to students is commonplace and the teacher is to be commended for her efforts to provide superb
training and instruction in chemistry to her students.
She is just slightly ahead of her time teaching advanced chemistry to her class. Watch those kids ace the sat tests when they ask what chloroform smells like.

[WinkyDink]

21. WTH ?! This teacher was a freakin' DANGER. And WTH SAT asks "what chloroform smells like"??

What a load of blather.

[Az Country]

24. Try Teaching school sometime

Try teaching school sometime and you will find that it is tough to get kids interested. Chemistry
teachers frequently do demonstrations of chemical reactions of various kinds to get the kids to study
and learn what chemistry is all about. If they learn by these demonstrations when it comes to the SAT
tests or other entrance tests to college, the teacher has done an excellent job. That is my point.

Is it dangerous? No, It is well known that mixing acids and bases can result in an explosion. If the
demonstration is done with students a safe distance from the substance with supervision, it is not
dangerous.
One of the identifying characteristics of Chloroform is its distinctive smell. This is one of the
questions that might be asked on an SAT test. Take a look at this link to a SAT tutor site on the
topic of chlorogorm and they just might ask what chloroform smells like. The students only need get a
slight whiff of it to learn what it smells like. The teacher had to have kept the dose low for safety
which is where her supervision was necessary. the administration should have policies which permit such
demonstrations outlining procedures.
http://www.tutorvista.com/content/chemistry/chemistry-iii/halogens/chloroform.php
Science classes require laboratory sessions for reinforcement of concepts taught in the textbook. It
is not enough to just read about science principles, but that lab experiments be done. These are what
add to the teaching experience and make for a good teacher.
Accidents can happen if experiments are not done with care. This is why teachers are there to
supervise and check on the strength of the reagents and to watch what students are doing. In general
it isn't dangerous.
Education is about learning in a safe and controlled environment. This teacher was doing her job
to teach concepts and principles to her students. There was no evidence that the experiments were
unsafe although there is always an element of risk in a chemistry experiment. That goes with the
territorry, but the teacher's motive was to educate her students and have them learn what chemistry
is all about, she was not doing anything intended to endanger them.

[Az Country]

27. safety issues in the lab

Question is if the fine line was crossed by this teacher. She appears to have been providing extracurricular experiments
designed to provide additional information to the students about chemistry and to motivate them to study it further.
The administration should have had policies and guidelines in place which would ensure the safety of the experiment.
What I was saying in this regard was that it needs to be determined if those guidelines were kept and if all was in order.
All chemistry experiments should be approved by administration to ensure the safety of teacher and students alike. More
information is needed to know what was done in this situation. However in general chemistry experiments are helpful to
reinforce what is being studied in the textbook about various substances and how they react.
What isn't known is what the dose was and if it caused any medical injury to the students. There was a case in UK news
where a lab tech deliberately gave chloroform to a student which knocked her out and could have caused more serious injury.
Link here http://news.msn.co.nz/article/7950575/lab-technician-drugs-teen-with-chloroform-in-storeroom The student was
given the substance without her knowledge or consent and in that situation it was improper to do so. It appears in that
setting that the lab tech did something deliberate and was experimenting on the student which is definitely improper.
A low level whiff of the substance once is all that is needed to know what chloroform smells like and can be a useful
thing to know so that if one should smell it again to use caution and check the levels one is getting exposed to. This
can be useful information in the study of chemistry. Certain experiements entail the use of chloroform and in those cases
it is important to know when one is being exposed to it and when to evacuate the room for one's personal safety. The dose
needs to be monitored and held to safe limits by the instructor. As long as this is done it should be ok, but one does
have to be careful when doing experiments.
There are ways to teach concepts using low level reagents which are safe and sane and still get the point across. We
made a battery using citric acid from oranges and lemons once for fun. This avoided the need for more caustic sulpheric
acid and was safe for students and at the same time we learned how chemical reactions can disassociate the ions to produce
an electric current.
Which experiments are important and necessary for the students to learn from is up to the instructor to determine.
Some of the higher level reagents may be needed to demonstrate certain points in chemistry. They also help get the
students interested in studying chemistry. For those students going into fields where advanced study is needed in chemistry
some of these experiments may be quite helpful in their career path. It would appear thus far that this teacher was doing
a good job of teaching and was adding experiments to help the students learn and be challenged to study further into
chemistry. Further information is needed to determine if a fine line was crossed but so far it appears that her intent
was to motivate the students to learn the subject at hand without intent to cause harm to anyone.
Wait and see what the proceedings determine in this case to whether the teacher was using proper judgement and
what the administrative review and approval was for the experiment.

[ret5hd]

2. surveillance photo here:

[msanthrope]

5. Thread win. n/t

[nebenaube]

3. Damn, you mean she actually taught some chemistry?

I had a number of Chem teachers do this for class 35 years ago.

[Aerows]

It's not exactly the safest subject on the planet

Fun as hell, though.

[nebenaube]

17. We made gun powder, gun cotten, hydrogen and extracted essential oils too...

In 7th grade.

[PVnRT]

4. Uh, yeah, it's a freshman organic lab

Toluene + nitric acid + heat = TNT

It's ridiculously easy to make.

[DBoon]

7. she was making nitroglycerine

just as easy, but a notoriously unstable substance

TNT won't explode without a detonator

[Javaman]

10. Nitro is very unstable, as you say. Here is a story about it...

When I was a kid, my parents had a cabin in Canada. Our next door neighbor was an inspector for the Mounted Police. Interesting guy.

Anyway, he and a few other inspectors were following up on a case from the year before. A guy was making nitro in his home and was arrested on terrorist charges. (this was back in the early 70's - Yeah, Canada has their nuts too. lol). anyway, during the original bust, some nitro has been spilled. Don't know the exact amount but no one had noticed it. It was in an out of the way spot in the "lab".

So a year later, they are walking the crime scene again, and some poor inspector, steps on that nitro. Boom off came his leg.

[Aerows]

11. Exactly

I find it odd that people freak out about Chemistry, and then aren't shocked in the slightest that people are making meth in their cars with Pepsi bottles. Making meth, period, much less in Pepsi bottles is fucking insanity, particularly if you know the things that go into it and just how all of those things could explode, but there appears to be a new meth lab every week.

How marijuana can be classified as a horrific drug when you have people screwing around with explosive chemicals to make a drug that has no therapeutic benefits is beyond me.

[Fumesucker]

14. Because making pot legal would cause horrific losses for a lot of businesses.

Not to mention government employees..

[Aerows]

15. Some people love the idea

of the Surveillance State, and don't recognize that it creates more problems than it solves. Authoritarians love problems, though, and seek out problems where there are none just to prove their authority.

[ProfessorGAC]

26. Still Riding That Horse, Huh?

Quite tedious.
GAC

[DBoon]

6. sounds like a fun teacher

Though nitrocellulose or TNT would have been a safer choice

[PCIntern]

9. In my day we had sex with our female teachers, we didn't get to make nitro!

Just kidding...sort of...

[dipsydoodle]

13. You rascal

:rofl:

[Aerows]

8. My Chemistry teacher had to have half the school evacuated

She mixed Bleach and Ammonia, but the fume hood couldn't handle the amount of Cl gas released.

It sounds like she was teaching Chemistry.

[dipsydoodle]

12. Well it not that hard to make

just happens to be illegal to do - is in the UK anyway.

[hobbit709]

16. Nitro is easy to make. The hard part is keeping the reaction cool

[jtuck004]

19. Not as educational as one might think. She ordered the substance - link -

then brought it to school (for "show and tell?").

As stated above, in a previous incident (totally unrelated to this and should not be considered when deciding guilt or innocence) "Huhndorf was arrested Monday on child endangerment charges when she allegedly helped three students inhale the chemical chloroform to get high."

http://www.klpw.com/content/teacher-arrested-after-bringing-explosive-material-school-0

All in one week. She must have read some John Dewey or A.S. Neill over the weekend.

Lucky kids.

[eShirl]

20. meh... one of my friends was banned from the hs chem lab as a freshman for making small amt of nitro

shake shake
"this shit doesn't work"
toss test tube out the window
BOOM

true story

[MadHound]

22. Yeah, so?

My chem teacher did the same thing back in the mid-seventies. Taught us how to make nitro, did the example lab, and then we took it out to the back field and blew it up. He was known to be an eccentric, brilliant, fun chemistry teacher. And the students actually learned.

My father taught welding, and in his first year classes, the first day, students would walk in and see balloons floating in various corners and such. They were filled with oxy-acetylene mix, and he deliberately blew them up as part of the first day safety lecture. It got their attention and they learned.

Sounds like a good teacher stuck in the wrong time.

[ikri]

23. Cool teacher

My HS chemistry teacher only showed (a specially selected few) pupils how to make napalm.

[jmowreader]

25. The best part of chemistry class was blowing shit up