Girl expelled from school for Science Project-update

[Unagi]

As the saying goes...

If it dies, that's biology
If it doesn't work, that's physics
If it blows up, that's chemistry.

Unless it really REALLY blows up, in which case it's back to physics.

[Blackhawk]

Every one of the zero tolerance rules can be traced to the fear of litigation, imo.

While I'll admit it is a factor, and the leading factor behind the 'can't play tag' type rules, when it comes to zero tolerance weapons policies, I think it is more of an overreaction to the school violence incidents that started in the 90s. Schools reacted to Columbine the way the nation did to 9-11.

[Lassr]

Good kids used to always forget that they had pocket knives in their backpacks from the weekend or, as Remus pointed out, some gear from weekend hunting trips that would get you arrested and on no-flight lists nowadays. Sometimes judgement is a good tool when dealing with these situations.

Absolutely. That has been my argument for years but schools treat everything black and white these days. No common sense is used or taught in schools anymore.

Do not blame the school. Blame Mr. and Mrs. "I'm suing you for multiple millions because you allowed someone to bring a weapon to school and my child now feels unsafe in his learning environment". Every one of the zero tolerance rules can be traced to the fear of litigation, imo.

Oh I know. I agree with you. America's joy of lawsuits suck! But you hope that sometimes someone would stand up and fight for some common sense and schools are where students get their brains shaped and molded.

Of course now you just have lawsuits because of a kid that gets suspended/expelled because of the zero tolerance.

[Remus West]

Every one of the zero tolerance rules can be traced to the fear of litigation, imo.

While I'll admit it is a factor, and the leading factor behind the 'can't play tag' type rules, when it comes to zero tolerance weapons policies, I think it is more of an overreaction to the school violence incidents that started in the 90s. Schools reacted to Columbine the way the nation did to 9-11.

Zero tolerance policies were in place long before Columbine. Although they did get a lot worse after that.

Of course now you just have lawsuits because of a kid that gets suspended/expelled because of the zero tolerance.

Yes, but the schools win those which saves them millions in pay outs even while it costs them in lawyer fees.

[theohall]

I was the one that spoke up against here initially, and even then I said that the response was overboard.

I'm just annoyed at the 'woe is her' media response and the rewards she's getting for making up an excuse.

Reading the original article, which is completely lacking in detail (failed journalism), I agree with you.

[Lassr]

Here is the original story. The article I posted was not about her arrest but about Hickam helping her.

http://news.yahoo.com/teen-girl-expelle ... 06336.html

If you read it, her experiment was in an 8 oz bottle and the "explosion" blew the cap off the bottle only.

[Lassr]

found this interesting tidbit from the article:

Zero-tolerance policies in schools began in 1994 after Congress required states to adopt laws that guaranteed one-year expulsions for students who brought firearms to school. In order for states to receive federal funding, leaders had to adopt these laws. All 50 states did so.

“The criminal justice paradigm, under which zero tolerance operates, strips educators of decision-making powers and discretion,” Nolan said. “It forces otherwise caring and thinking adults to respond to incidents in unthinking and often destructive ways.”

So congress started this crap...that explains everything.

And what I was talking about earlier:

“This situation is a poignant example of the absurdity of zero tolerance and the over-use of police intervention in schools” Dr. Kathleen Nolan, the author of Police in the Hallways: Discipline in an Urban High School and a lecturer at Princeton’s Program in Teacher Preparation, told TakePart.

“Tragically, this young woman, all because of what appears to have been misguided curiosity, now faces expulsion and felony charges, which could negatively impact her future opportunities and alter the course of her life,” she said.

[Markstrink]

I think the one that got me was the kindergartener who was suspended for a terrorist threat for threatening another student with a bubble blowing gun. Which was listed as a terrorist threat.

Remember the invention of the battery operated squirt gun? When we were younger? Looked just like a Uzi or m-16? I remember running all over the neighborhood with friends and kids we barely knew all summer with these things.

[Kasey Chang]

According to Gawker she got a full scholarship to US Space Academy

http://gawker.com/kiera-wilmot-the-16-y ... -509423419" target="_blank

[Isgrimnur]

CNN

Students at a Montana elementary school were evacuated on Tuesday when a homemade bomb detonated on their playground. No children were injured in the explosion, officials said.

An improvised explosive device, or IED, exploded shortly after a school official found it at Rossiter Elementary School in Helena, the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office reported.
...
Authorities aren't sure who planted the device, which they described as a soda bottle with duct tape around it, or whether there are any other devices, sheriff Lee Dutton said in a press conference shared by CNN affiliate KRTV Tuesday morning.
...
The FBI, Montana Highway Patrol, Helena Police Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting the sheriff's office in the investigation, CNN affiliate KTVH reported.

I wonder what the ratio of taxpayer resources to device construction funds will be.

[em2nought]

"The Works" wasn't one of the "what not to do" covered in the Estes Model Rocketry Catalog.