Honor student charged with 2 felonies for making a volcano as science experiment

People who think this is so dangerous and a crime are in for a real surprise if they ever really figure out what is out in the world.

a reply to: sheepslayer247
Now add that blast to the Volcanos building material, and it could be a pretty damaging bomb.

*** EDITED COMMENT BY ME "GUYFRIDAY" ***

From the Huffington Post article

My science teacher said we could each pick a science project that has to do with biology, chemistry or physics. He said we couldn't do a baking soda and vinegar volcano because that was at the fifth grade level. I especially like chemistry, and the reacting. I like seeing two or more different things become something else. So I was asking friends around for project ideas. Someone suggested to me to combine aluminum foil and toilet bowl cleaner in a water bottle to make a volcano.

So vinegar and baking soda are out, but I wonder if she talked to the teacher about this experiment?
Oh wait never mind.

That morning I was taking the experiment to be approved by my teacher. My friends and I were outside, and they wanted to see how it worked. Eventually they convinced me to try it. It did not react the way I expected it to. The lid popped off and smoke came out. If I could go back in time, I definitely wouldn't have done it.

So it appears that she was going to get the experiment approved, but instead decided to go test this without permission on school grounds.

The principal and dean of discipline came over and asked me to tell them what happened. I was kind of scared, but I thought they'd understand it was an accident.

Did she tell anyone what she was going to do before setting of the "test"?

I wrote a statement to the dean of discipline explaining what had happened. Afterward I was told to sit on the resource officer's office. They told me I made a bomb on school property, and police possibly have the right to arrest me. I didn't know what they classified as a bomb. I was worried I accidently made a bomb.

and there we have. She didn't know it was a bomb, so that makes it ok....wait no it doesn't.

Her friends told her to use these chemicals, and she did no research on what they do when mixed together? If she did she would have known that the pressure would cause an explosion. Her teacher never knew what she was doing because she hadn't taken the experiment to them yet, but instead just followed what her friends told her (the same ones that told her to use those chemicals to begin with) and just go test it on school grounds without any school official supervising the test.

oh well it looks like everything's fine with the girl now

A couple good things have come out of this. Someone heard about what happened to me and gave me a scholarship to space camp. I'm super stoked about space camp with Mr. Hickam this summer! There's a zero-gravity tank I can't wait to try!

So yeah this was a case of a student blindly follow what people told her to do, and the resulting event could have sent people to the hospital. I don't think the school over reacted on this. The way it sounded was that the school did, but look at it from a neutral point of view.


Oh well she gets to go to Space Camp for free.

a reply to: Guyfriday

Exactly. She should learn from this mistake (we all have made mistakes) and should not have been charged/expelled.

But as you pointed out, the teacher is the one that is supposed to be directing these students and we should question whether or not that teacher was paying attention.

On the other hand if there was some indication that she did know what she was doing, and had some intent to blow something up (like fellow students)

Terrorist mind control has worked well in this country. Time to ban science projects, the perfect arena for terrorism.

Holy cow...

a reply to: Guyfriday





So she should be happy she only got arrested & expelled for creating a SCIENCE EXPERIMENT?

an honor student?

Holy fricking moses.

and the Ministry of TRUTH rambles on.

smh

I did a classic ESP experiment back in 6th grade with about 30 participants. I did all the probability equations and was quite impressed with myself. I concluded it wasn't a real phenomenon. I got a red participant ribbon. The little jerks who made papier-mache volcanos with baking soda and vinegar and food coloring got blue ribbons. It still bothers me, lol.

So is plain simple water. Put it in a sealed glass bottle and put it in a fire, or on the stove and see how it explodes.... Or your hair spray..... Heck, you can even ame a flame thrower from you hair spray or insect spray....


a reply to: Hoosierdaddy71

She will end up getting those felonies wiped off her record, with a lot of attorney fees, and fees paid to the state. what a bunch of crap, given to someone who didnt and wasnt trying to hurt anyone

originally posted by: schadenfreude
a reply to: Guyfriday

So she should be happy she only got arrested & expelled for creating a SCIENCE EXPERIMENT?

an honor student?

Holy fricking moses.

and the Ministry of TRUTH rambles on.

smh

Obviously somebody over reacted.
Doesn't change the fact that an honor student made poisonous gas in school. What kind of honor student didn't know she was making poison? Dry ice makes vapor for god sakes. Maybe if she used black powder to make smoke...at least that's not poison.
You know, if you had a kid sitting down wind of that thing you might not be so forgiving.

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71

originally posted by: schadenfreude
a reply to: Guyfriday

So she should be happy she only got arrested & expelled for creating a SCIENCE EXPERIMENT?

an honor student?

Holy fricking moses.

and the Ministry of TRUTH rambles on.

smh

Obviously somebody over reacted.
Doesn't change the fact that an honor student made poisonous gas in school. What kind of honor student didn't know she was making poison? Dry ice makes vapor for god sakes. Maybe if she used black powder to make smoke...at least that's not poison.
You know, if you had a kid sitting down wind of that thing you might not be so forgiving.

I'd be very forgiving seeing as how my definition of reality doesn't change overnight simply b/c "someone in authoritah" says it should.

bomb making materials? pfftt. NOT.

Its not a bomb.
At most its a percussion explosion.
She allowed the escape of the reaction to ensure it DIDNT explode.

I stand corrected. Posted in haste and failed to read past the OP.

Ill agree to the fact that she was in the wrong. I hate to see felony charges brought on people so early though.

Now if they can prove nefarious intentions and that she meant to harm someone, then I wont argue with the felony charges.

a reply to: Chickensalad

Really cause it sounded like the plastic threads failed and the top blew off which negated the catastrophic failure of the bottle which would have resulted in the contents as well as the rest of the structure to be blasted 360 degrees. I guess reading can't be over stressed.

originally posted by: Chickensalad
Its not a bomb.
At most its a percussion explosion.
She allowed the escape of the reaction to ensure it DIDNT explode.

Explosion creating device is a bomb, and no she didn't let the gas escape that was the accident part. If she would have conducted the test without that accident, then it would have exploded (which does mean she made a bomb)

Luckily, she wasn't very thorough and the gas did escape.

*** NOTE TO READERS***

I had edited my first response to this, only because after reading the source material on the story I learned that there was more going on then what the Op showed in their link (not their fault at all, they provided a good link, and I'm at fault for not digging deeper to find out more)

a reply to: schadenfreude

Yeah I thought it was familiar.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

so, she was not in class, this was an external thing, and she was not being clever and a good student. she was being reckless and putting other students in danger.

Spin it however you want, thats what she was doing...

I guess what bothers me here (and several others obviously) is that before this happened with this girl, NO ONE HAD A PROBLEM WITH IT. If the teacher had sent instructions home saying "vinegar is fine, drano is not and here's WHY", we wouldn't be having this conversation.

BUT...

now that there's a "bomb" involved around "the children" OMFG let's throw reason & common sense out the fricking window and call a science project a

That's some Joseph Goebbels crap right there.

It's the same thinking with all these mass shootings & gun ammo buyings of the govt.

I said to several friends of mine that hunt before the boston bombings, so what if ammo is expensive, leaarn to make your own ammo, use black gun powder to do it, unless they have a false flag involving black gunpowder & then BAM, boston.

Ppl in power are creating a culture of fear simply b/c they say so, and you guys are eating it up with a spoon.

Guns aren't dangerous! science experiments aren't dangerous! (even among "THE CHILDREN)

Government is dangerous!

/rant off

a reply to: sn0rch

i used the search bar for a few minutes looking for a similar story, fwiw.

if the mods wanna delete it or whatever, it's on them.

it is dated recently however.

They might as well just get rid of Science all together. No matter how you look at it there is always something in Science that COULD potentially be a hazard. They just continue to dumb down kids. Most of the # we got today is found because of accidental experiments. Let the kids be kids and have fun!

a reply to: schadenfreude

This happens, because the United States has reached a paranoid state. Where it fears its own citizens, and an outbreak of a revolution.

Believe me, it's gonna get worse ...