Dear Schools: Stop Treating Science-Curious Kids Like Criminals
Crime Scene? Dreamstime We shouldn't punish students who are trying to understand how their world works. On April 22, Kiera Wilmot, a 16-year-old public school student in Bartow, Florida did what any kid with an ounce of curiosity does: She performed an experiment. Like many acts of science, however, it didn't go as planned. Wilmot allegedly mixed a few household chemicals in an eight-ounce water bottle, capped the lid, set it down, and stood back to watch, according to local news reports. She expected a little smoke to appear. Instead the top blew off and made a firecracker-like bang. No one was hurt. No property was damaged. She didn't even run away. The principal's eyewitness account, along with those of Wilmot's friends and schoolmates, all suggest she was simply satisfying her curiosity on school property before classes began. "She wanted to see what would happen [when the chemicals mixed] and was shocked...