Student Faces Felony Weapons Charge After Science Experiment

Recently, schools across the country have been enacting hysterical zero-tolerance policies with regard to weapons. Stories have been popping up in which innocent elementary-aged children were suspended for pretending to use an imaginary gun during recess or eating a Pop Tart in such a way that it accidentally resembled a pistol at some point during consumption. Davi Barker covered a story in which a middle school student was arrested for wearing an NRA T-shirt. None of these events posed any threat to public safety.

Now, the federal government and Florida’s state government have teamed up to bring about a new outrageous arrest, blending anti-weapon hysteria with anti-science ignorance into a truly bizarre and damaging zero-tolerance policy error. 16-year-old Kiera Wilmot, noted by teachers to be an excellent, inquisitive student, was arrested on felony charges after attempting a chemistry experiment that resulted in a tiny reaction that destroyed a plastic bottle and caused its top to pop off. No human beings, animals, or pieces of property other than the waste bottle were damaged in the experiment. Check out The Young Turks’ coverage of the incident below, and let’s discuss the details after the jump.

Adults with Common Sense Should Be Able to Distinguish Between a Science Experiment and a Bomb

Obviously, no one wants to live in a world where high school students are using IEDs on one another, but they don’t, and a little common sense goes a long way when it comes to protecting kids. When a top student gets curious and decides to mix household chemicals in a plastic bottle, resulting in a tiny reaction that pops the top of the bottle off and poofs out some smoke, teachers should realize that what they have on their hands is the next Marie Curie, not an international terrorist.

If this is the standard under which people are arrested, what future faces other scientists? Simply by causing a small, insignificant chemical reaction, Kiera Wilmot conducted an act that officials are considering to be the discharge of an explosive weapon on school grounds. Most science experiments occur on school grounds. Have the feds criminalized the use of reactive chemicals of any kind in science experiments by forcing zero tolerance policies on the states?

Hysteria Does Not Make Good Policy

Politicians tend to react to public uproar, which often means that hysterical responses drive politics. This is a terrible starting point from which to craft policy. In this case, an outrageous zero tolerance rule was used to take a bright student off the right track and thrust her into the criminal justice system.

The experiment she conducted did not result in the creation of a bomb. The microwave in the teacher’s lounge produces more powerful chemical reactions than the tiny explosion she caused. Policymakers and bureaucrats do not always use common sense. Sometimes, they follow the letter of hastily and poorly-written laws, even when it means putting a good kid in jail for doing something that the greatest minds in the history of the world have done throughout time. If anything, the school should be letting her use the lab more often and guiding her on safe ways to test chemical reactions.

Kiera Wilmot’s experiment made her a scientist, not a criminal. That said, someone should sit her down and teach her proper safety procedures for handling chemicals. This should happen at school, not in a penitentiary.

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