Science Project Lands ‘Exemplary’ Student in Jail

[JJVP]

A Florida teenager with an “exemplary record” was arrested and expelled from school for what school officials say was a science experiment gone wrong.

The levels of stupidity in the ranks of schools officials never ceases to amaze me.

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/to ... -jail.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[The Annoyed Man]

That's the SECOND expulsion of an exemplary student in recent days: viewtopic.php?f=83&t=65772" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RX8er]

I have mixed feelings about this. I just did a very similar experiment with my 8 yo daughter using banking soda, vinegar and a bottle. Yes, they go boom and are a destructive device. We did it at home away from school for this very reason and used film and video.

Why was this done outside, on school grounds and not overseen by a school official / teacher? I think if a science teacher had been present it would have been nothing. If my kid was on school grounds making and setting off, what is essentially a bomb, I would expect the same if it was not overseen or sponsored by the school.

EDIT: I argue this position and I think the vast majority of time, schools over react.

[seamusTX]

In seventh grade I probably committed what would be a felony today. It had to do with hydrogen. I'm not saying anything further.

Most of the early scientists like Newton, Roentgen (who discovered X rays) and the Curies did dangerous things. Quite a few rockets went south, and not in a good way.

- Jim

[trentwhite778]

a friend of mine stole an entire brick of potassium from the chemistry lab in high school and we threw it into the city pond.
. Of course this was almost 20 years ago. Lots of dead fish. That's about the only bad thing I ever did as a kid.

[SF18C]

She needs a better library!!!



What's worse?

Dozens of students suspended for 'twerking' video
http://news.msn.com/us/dozens-of-studen ... king-video" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The article doesn't even do justice to the actual video... these are high school kids? I guess it could be called their first amendment right to do so...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuovbHYuibU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[JP171]

She needs a better library!!!

[ Image ]

What's worse?

Dozens of students suspended for 'twerking' video
http://news.msn.com/us/dozens-of-studen ... king-video" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The article doesn't even do justice to the actual video... these are high school kids? I guess it could be called their first amendment right to do so...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuovbHYuibU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TSK TSK, I Wont even let my son have my copies of those, nor the other few that you didn't show, bad boy bad meat. but then CE's were always a little loose

[jimlongley]

She needs a better library!!!

[ Image ]

What's worse?

Dozens of students suspended for 'twerking' video
http://news.msn.com/us/dozens-of-studen ... king-video" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The article doesn't even do justice to the actual video... these are high school kids? I guess it could be called their first amendment right to do so...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuovbHYuibU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Or my copy of a 1913 high school chemistry book with instructions for making nitro-glycerin, dynamite, TNT, ammonium picrate, and fulminate of mercury.

[VMI77]

I have mixed feelings about this. I just did a very similar experiment with my 8 yo daughter using banking soda, vinegar and a bottle. Yes, they go boom and are a destructive device. We did it at home away from school for this very reason and used film and video.

Why was this done outside, on school grounds and not overseen by a school official / teacher? I think if a science teacher had been present it would have been nothing. If my kid was on school grounds making and setting off, what is essentially a bomb, I would expect the same if it was not overseen or sponsored by the school.

EDIT: I argue this position and I think the vast majority of time, schools over react.

I'm an old guy. We made gun powder in chemistry class and set it off. Smoke filled the entire room and the class had to evacuate. We also put metallic sodium in water to see it blow up --in the classroom and we were unsupervised (the teacher was up front grading papers and we were in the back experimenting). We were told to be more careful. We didn't get a black mark in our records, suspended, or expelled. We didn't even get a lecture from the principal. The police weren't called. Charges were not filed; our experiments didn't make the national or the local "news"; and our lives were not ruined. The difference? Back then, the collectivists hadn't completed their takeover of the school system and judgement and independent thought were still allowed.

This is not an over-reaction. It is the careful implementation of policy, a systematic effort intended to extinguish curiosity, imagination, experimentation, and independent thought that leads to independent action. For most students the public schools are little more than indoctrination centers designed to instill obedience to and conformity with the ruling political orthodoxy. Curiosity and independent thought are existential threats to the hive and the hive mind. The collectivists cannot allow their helots to just think and do whatever they want, especially when those actions lead to self-sufficiency and undermine the need for the State.