Curiosity Rewarded: Florida Teen Heading to Space Camp, Not Jail

Kiera Wilmot, the Florida high school student who was expelled from her school after an unauthorized science experiment was misperceived as a weapon (at least for purposes of arrest and charging), won't be going to jail. She will, though, be going to Space Camp, thanks to a crowdfunding campaign started by author and former NASA engineer Homer Hickham. All charges against her have been dropped.

Comments

Good to see intelligence rewarded for once.

[Anonymous Coward]

It scares me shitless that my kindergartner could be kicked out of school for folding his hands and saying bang in this insane and litigious age.

Re:Good to see intelligence rewarded for once.

[MetalliQaZ]

Intelligence? I think you mean curiosity. Let's be honest. If she had thought it through a little bit more, this "experiment" wouldn't have landed her in hot water. Curiosity is still a very good thing, though.

Re:Good to see intelligence rewarded for once.

[Peter Simpson]

" If she had thought it through a little bit more, this "experiment" wouldn't have landed her in hot water."

IIRC, she cleared it with her teacher? Used a small amount of chemicals in an open area. That sounds pretty safe, cautious and intelligent to me. Nobody got hurt, but because the reaction was exothermic and dramatic, one observer felt someone *could* have gotten hurt. So, instead of reacting sensibly, they went off the deep end and called the police. The person lacking judgement and intelligence wa the school administrator, not the young lady.

Re:Good to see intelligence rewarded for once.

[jellomizer]

Fear is our biggest problem right now.

Why aren't we going to the Gym to get in shape? Fear of going into a gym out of shape and being judged by others. (I will go to the Gym after I lose 20 lbs)
Why aren't we starting our own businesses but dealing with the lower reward working for a company? Fear that our ideas will get sued by patent trools or other companies. Or if the case your product did fail in some way you are responsible for a problem that is much bigger than you.
Why are Religious Fundamentalists going nuts about evolution and gay rights? They are afraid these changes will cause our culture to reject religion and have society force them to be atheist.
Why are businesses not expanding? They are afraid that new regulations will make it impossible for them to work. ...
Our culture has been poisoned with fear. But there isn't anything really about the facts to be afraid of, but because off all the fear we are paralyzed into doing the best thing for ourselves and our culture.

Politically is isn't about right vs left. It is about most of our leaders are or were Lawyers, They think in terms of a Lawyers, our leaders are not made up of peers of different skills. Except for adding a new law, perhaps we can change a process. Instead of trying a way to prosecute people who do things that are negative culturally lets try ways that will change their behaviors proactively, as well rehabilitate post incident.

For example I got into a car accident. I rear ended a car, however I did help prevent the car behind me from rear ending me, and the car in front of me got very little damage, while my car got the brunt of it. I never got in such an accident before. However the police at the scene figure they had to give me a ticket because in my state I am legally responsible. Except for the fact that I am now without my favorite car and have to pay a good insurance deductible, they felt like to rub some salt into my wound by adding a $100 ticket. The system is setup to try to discourage people from committing the crimes, they figure if you get punished for it you will learn your lesson. Except for slightly modifying the roads so these things wouldn't happen, or just realizing the person is already in enough pain. But our leaders are lawyers, every law that is broken and caught needs a punishment. So people will live in fear of breaking the laws.

Re:Good to see intelligence rewarded for once.

[interkin3tic]

It's more complicated than that

"Unfortunately, what she did falls into our code of conduct," Leah Lauderdale, a spokeswoman for the district, tells Riptide. "It's grounds for immediate expulsion."

More specifically, Wilmot's mini-explosion -- which came after she mixed "common household chemicals" in a plastic bottle -- violates Section 7.05 of the school's conduct code, Lauderdale says, which mandates expulsion for any "student in possession of a bomb (or) explosive device... while at a school (or) a school-sponsored activity... unless the material or device is being used as part of a legitimate school-related activity or science project conducted under the supervision of an instructor."

...Wilmot's principal acknowledges that the 16-year-old wasn't trying to hurt anyone and simply made a "bad choice," the school's rules said she had to be expelled.

...The spokeswoman says the school district stands by its rules. "We urge our parents to convey to their kids that there are consequences to their actions," she says.

source They undoubtedly maintained that since a teacher wasn't present at the time, that violated the letter of the law and, obviously, "NO EXCEPTIONS TO RULES EVER" is the most important message schools can teach to kids. (sarcasm)

There's also obviously a bit of "I'm just following orders, it's not me who is doing this clearly stupid and unethical thing even though I am the actual one expelling you."

I think there are two big roots to the problem. The first is zero tolerance policies. Schools love them deep down because it makes fretful parents think their children are safer, and also probably dealing with kids all day makes you really want to clamp down hard with rules for your own sanity. And obviously in this case, the school was more interested in showing that students are not going to be blown up by science-loving terrorist children than they were in the student. Even if the schools didn't want zero tolerance, all the other idiots involved want them, legislators and parents.

The second is personal liability. No one wants to stand up and say "Fuck that rule, it's a stupid fucking rule" and then potentially lose their job. I have no idea how likely that would have been in this case. Evidently, no one even wanted to say "She DID have permission, so she's not really violating the rules." Maybe the teacher who gave her permission chickened out and said "Well, I didn't give her permission to do THAT, so please don't fire me.

TLDR: it would be nice if someone had the power to use their own judgement and intelligence here, but there are plenty of mechanisms in place to ensure that can't happen. Preventing this type of idiotic heavy-handed action will require bigger changes than one administrator growing a brain and/or balls.

Re:Good to see intelligence rewarded for once.

[serialband]

No, the teacher did not know about the experiment. The girl mixed the chemicals on the advice of "a friend." The administration overreacted, but she probably did deserve some form of punishment. Mixing chemicals in closed containers without knowing exactly what they do (she said she thought it would just produce some smoke), and without supervision, on school property? Extremely bad idea.

The only punishment she deserved was a stern talking to. She was punished plenty by the big bang that ensued and probably scared her out of her wits. Now, she gets a reward to go to space camp. That's not quite an appropriate message either.

Re:Good to see intelligence rewarded for once.

[tnk1]

Having actually done something like this, at approximately her age, I did think about it. Indeed, even back before there were terrorists behind every tree, I realized that even though I thought creating a chemical reaction would not be a big deal, I knew that there is no way I'd do that on school grounds. So I did my experiments out in a field, nowhere near school property.

I understand that she thought that it wouldn't explode, but did she really think that running that kind of reaction on school grounds was a good idea? Perhaps she hadn't spent enough time blowing things up as a kid to understand that you don't want to mix potentially explodey things in public.

And I am not just talking about school grounds = public space. Kids her age should be well aware that schools are a zone where even minor infractions can generate huge overreactions from administrators, more so than even if she did it on some sidewalk. Schools are about as close as we have to a rights-free location, outside of prisons and the military.

Re:Good to see intelligence rewarded for once.

[richlv]

Kids her age should be well aware that schools are a zone where even minor infractions can generate huge overreactions from administrators

i'm scared of you, your country and the spawns it will create.

Re: Good to see intelligence rewarded for once.

[Nefarious Wheel]

Bad idea yes, but being kicked out of school and retorted to police isn't a proportional punishment.

The right answer would be a figurative slap on the wrist for "borrowing" chemicals from the lab, and some detention exercises to calculate the reaction results, and the pressures/temperatures generated in the containment vessel.

Yes, this. Punishment designed to correct, not a reaction based on anger.

Kids like this are not the ones you want to filter out of the system.

Re: Good to see intelligence rewarded for once.

[cusco]

You must have been a really boring kid, we did a lot of things a **LOT** worse than this, and those of us who were caught got suspended for a couple of days. Of course we were white kids in a small town (and that house didn't burn down) so of course there was no public outcry.

Total Win

[Murdoch5]

I'm glad to see that at least some people have morals. Wanting to experiment with science and NOT hurting anyone in the process shouldn't be met by being kicked out of school, she's getting what she deserves.

in my class

[slashmydots]

In my high school chemistry class, we made gunpowder (which someone accidentally shattered a mortar and pestle with) and hydrogen mini-rockets (we filled ours with butane and put a hole in the ceiling tiles) and that was called a chapter in the book, not a crime. Though unlike the media, I think the difference isn't that I'm white, it's that that school district and police department is full of complete morons.

Re:I Think This Is A Bad Thing

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe rules are rules and you break them, you should be punished, not rewarded. In this case, thanks the publicity, she is greatly benefitting from breaking the rules.

Congratulations, you are exactly what is wrong with the world. Rules are made for people, they are not sacred.

Re:I Think This Is A Bad Thing

[Bigby]

Einstein broke Newton's rules. Is that bad?

Re:I Think This Is A Bad Thing

[onkelonkel]

"I believe rules are rules and you break them, you should be punished, not rewarded." - Congratulations, you have met the requirements for German citizenship.

Her being punished for an "unauthorised" science experiment will tend to discourage curiosity and scientific inquiry in other children. This is bad for America. By rewarding her we encourage curiosity and scientific inquiry, which is good for America.

We could even get away from the mindless "zero tolerance" crap and maybe send a nuanced message. Send her to Space Camp, but have her write a paper on the risks of experimenting with homemade explosives and what safety measures she should have taken, but didn't and how it could be done more safely next time.

Should have been punished, but not charged

[BitwizeGHC]

What she made wasn't really a science experiment; it was a "bottle bomb" consisting of mixing tinfoil and Drano in a Coke bottle. These explosives are well-known among schoolyard pranksters and can cause serious injury (chemical burns, loss of fingers, etc.)

It's not politically correct to say, but if she was cooking one of these up on school property with her friends without teacher oversight, she should have been punished. As long as she didn't actually hurt anyone, though, it should have amounted into a few days' detention at worst.

That said, I'm happy she's going to space camp and that this sort of mischief might develop into a real interest in science.

Re:I Think This Is A Bad Thing

[dragon-file]

I dont think you know who Homer Hickam is. Homer was a kid who grew up in a mining town where either you graduated high school and went to the coal mines or you got out on a football scholarship. He had a curiosity about space and rockets that could almost be described as fanaticism. His farther didn't support him, his friends initially didn't support him and only one person encouraged him, his teacher Mrs. Riley.

He performed countless experiments throughout his high school days most of which were dangerous but he never gave up.

He eventually graduated high school and went on to Virgina Tech and got a BS in Industrial engineering.

He then went into the military and got into NASA and I'm sure I'm missing things in between.

The point is, after seeing who elected to send her to space camp, the reasons become clear and make sense.

Homer Hickam

Zero tolerance for zero tolerance

[Anonymous Coward]

It's time we started making very loud and angry noises about zero tolerance being utterly unacceptable[1]. Students need the freedom to screw up in the pursuit of fooling around with some learning.

Things need to be exploded, burnt, and launched. Children need to have the freedom to throw balls at each other, wrestle, and do other dangerous things. Criminalizing mistakes and foolishness is as near fascist behavior as I have ever heard.

Tomfoolery for all, everywhere!

[1] Don't make a false equivalency between things that look scary and acts that are harmful.

Re:I Think This Is A Bad Thing

[crakbone]

I think your confusing punishment with rehabilitation. This is a child that had bad judgement. She got her punishment, she got arrested, she got expelled, and she got charged with a felony. For a child those are all major. But on the other side she has been given a chance to push her energies into an area where she will not be endangering or causing heart attacks for school administrators. With children it is always better to drive the energy in the direction you want rather than straight up stop it.

Punishments don't fit the crimes

[realsilly]

This is not to say that I think this teenager committed a crime, personally I do not. When I went to school, there was Detention and then there was the big all day on Saturday detention. Personally I don't think this young lady should have been expelled, or even suspended. Two full all day detentions where she has to clean toilets, bathrooms, desks, buses, etc... would have sufficed.

Certainly, after that incident the school should have made an announcement that the situation was not considered acceptable without permission / supervision from a chemistry teacher. And then any future situations of a similar nature would result in a x #no of day(s) suspension. And a repeat offender, expulsion.

This would encourage students to be curious and cautious by approaching the appropriate teacher and getting guidance and permission.

School is for curiosity and learning. Students make mistakes but it shouldn't stay with them for the rest of their academic lives.

Hell if a teenager kills someone, their name is usually kept from the papers, they go to juvenile detention and their records are sealed at 18. This one young lady experiments with some chemical house hold items and she's persecuted across America by those who insist on zero tolerance.

Folks, I don't want to see people get hurt unnecessarily, but we learn from our mistakes, let us make them without persecution forever.

Zero-tolerance is the destruction of basic human nature and most of all COMMON SENSE. Every situation is different, Every student is different, treat them differently.