Ever had a science project go in the wrong direction? In the U.S., 16-year-old Kiera Wilmot became curious after a friend told her about a reaction that would happen if she mixed hydrochloric acid and aluminum.
In a small water bottle, she mixed toilet bowl cleaner with aluminum foil–a bang, a blown bottle top, and a small puff of smoke came out of the reaction.
Hundreds of videos of similar experiments appear on YouTube.
Shortly after the incident, the school’s assistant principal questioned Wilmot’s science teacher who said he didn’t know anything about the experiment. Then the assistant principal called the police.
Despite her intellectual thirst for scientific knowledge, Kiera didn’t receive a pat on the back for her curiosity nor did she receive a warning not to try this again on the school campus unless under the supervision of her science teacher.
No people were physically harmed and no property was damaged during the incident. But Kiera was expelled from Bartow High School and slapped with two felony charges – possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device.
For budding scientists, experimenting with chemicals is usually the beginning of a long and fruitful career in the discipline. We usually reward students who pursue their academic interests outside of the classroom.
In the initial phases of building the world’s leading multi-billion dollar social networking site Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg overwhelmed the computers in the Harvard University network, preventing some students from accessing the Internet.
Accidents happen when experimenting with unfamiliar mechanisms. Harvard understood this and did not expel or arrest Zuckerberg for his harmless mishap with the school’s network.
But Kiera is young, black, and resides in the state of Florida, which has its share of issues in dealing with black teens (the Trayvon Martin killing being the most discussed incident).
The prosecutor Assistant State Attorney Tammy Glotfelty made the decision to charge Kiera with two felonies on the same day she heard the circumstances of the case.
Just two days later, Glotfelty decided not to press charges against a 13-year old boy who shot his 10-year old brother with a BBgun, because she felt it was “an accident.” She spent a over month mulling over this latter decision.
Hopefully the Polk County school board and the U.S. justice system will realize its misjudgment, revoke Kiera Wilmot’s felony charges, and restore her place at Bartow High School and her reputation as an honor roll student.
A petition has been started to this effect.
Amateur chemists before Kiera have taken the course of experiments gone wrong and many will after.
Schools should not discourage young science enthusiasts from satisfying their curious urges, but instead guide and encourage young minds to channel their creative energies in a safe and productive manner.
America has stooped to such low levels that the ‘Free-World Experiment’ that the rest of the world has praised them for, is falling apart, if not already fallen apart.
The issue of race has for hundreds of years tarnished the experiment, it has tarnished America’s reputation greatly. The reason more nations are kicking back on democracy is this simple observation- the hypocrisy.
If America wants to world to look up again to them, stuff like this – blatant practices of racism – must be outrightly outlawed. American needs to send a message to the rest of the world that they are still committed to the experiment that America is – the Free World.
First Slavery, then Jim Crow, then Racism. I don’t see this going anywhere. America is still the greatest nation on earth – but it must wake up.
On the other hand, much like the Free-World Experiment, the Integration Experiment has failed terribly. African Americans have deprived themselves of forming their own institutions in an effort to integrate into white institutions. That has not happened. America’s institutional racism has pretty much kept them out.
That leaves Kiera Wilmot with no community protection, she left at the behest of racist white institutions to prosecute. That’s pretty much the African American problem and a rethinking will be in a much needed direction.
Aden? I mean why? Why?
America reminds us always that there is a qualitative difference between a black life and a white life. This will not happen to a white school girl. This would in fact be applauded by the principals. The same way tens of black kids get shot and missing everyday in America, and there’s not a scintilla of backing from the media to bringing attention.
But, Taflatse, if a white kid gets missing today, and the mother pictures a fictitious black man imagery to have stolen that kid, the whole US goes ballistic. A black man would be found, and he would be made quite responsible without any chance for him to defend himself.
These are the practices in America that we shudder at – the gross disrespect for black lives and the immense hypocrisy. I hope this Free World Experiment does not fail, since no other nation on earth has the balls to ignite one. But unless America cleans this dirty act, they will find themselves learning from the rest of the world than the other way around.
RACISM in its most purest! Alas don’t we forget that puritanism is still pretty much alive in America. It has manage to seep into their politics, their religious practices, their homes, the white house etc.
I wonder if a country like this, a country that has taught itself to hate blacks, can ever get over it. Here in the 21st Century who would have thought America, the ‘Free World’, would be bedeviled by the lowest of crimes – hate for other men for the fun of it?
I thought this was an April Fool’s joke! I am shocked. What can I say? This is America.