To all the people who are towing the "this was inappropriate/unsafe behavior and she deserves her punishment" line, fine, but at most a suspension from school would seem fitting. Expulsion and 2 felony counts is ridiculous. Ruining a young girls life because of a mistake in which no one was hurt, whether she should have known or not, is not the answer.
I thought of this with the Aaron Schwartz case. This makes me think of it again.<p>I'd love it if there was a service named something like Karma. When something like this happens, I could register a name, a reason, and a frequency. With no more than that frequency I'll be sent information on stories involving that name, with my reason attached.<p>The idea is that in a case like this I could search, find that the prosecutor in the case is "Tammy Glotfelty", and until I lost interest in the case would get updated on what she's doing. That way if she ever, for instance, ran for election I could be reminded, and know that it is time to donate to her opponent in said race.
If the way this incident is described is accurate I definitely would like to support Kiera, but it's all been very one-sided so far. I'm yet to see anyone detail what the chemicals were or what the setting was in which this occurred. Those are important details to understand in order to tell if this really was something reckless or if it was just a proper science experiment. Anyone know of such sources?
It's true that we don't have enough information to tell what was really going on, but I donated anyway. What the kid appears to have done—mixed stuff together to see what would happen—falls in the "moderate" part of the spectrum of things that curious teenagers do. A lot of significant contributors to society, not to mention a lot of people on this site, have similar episodes in their past. I figure the least we can give her is the benefit of the doubt, and we live in a system where the benefit of the doubt has a price: adequate legal representation. Let her have a good lawyer and let's see how long those felony charges last.<p>One thing's for sure, that lawyer will be able to call on a long list of prestigious expert witnesses.
Regardless of her outcome with her current school, people in the future will respect her curiosity. This experience could shape into an awesome college application essay.
At least 50% of the teenagers in this world who have access to products X and Y would mix them up if somebody told them that mixing X and Y will create an explosion.<p>That's the nature of being a teenager. As far as I'm concerned teenagers are showing more signs of mental health than adults these days.
When I was a kid/teenager I blew up everything from large condensators, old TV sets, pet-bottles and one time there was even a broken window.<p>I didn't end up as a criminal or a terrorist .... I got and engineering degree.<p>Society need to reacquire common sense and a sense of humour.
I've contributed. I once shocked my high school physics teacher (literally) by messing with an electric motor we'd made in class. If I'd done that in Kiera's school I'd probably have been waterboarded by the principal or something.
<a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/state-attorney-jerry-hill-drop-charges-against-kiera-wilmot" rel="nofollow">http://www.change.org/petitions/state-attorney-jerry-hill-dr...</a><p>to anyone who thinks Kiera's charges should be dropped, sign this petition on change.org...it still needs over 5,000 signatures. we have to save her.
Updated info about the case, from Kiera's lawyer: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kiera-wilmot-lawyer-hoping-to-prevent-felony-charges-from-being-filed-2013-5" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessinsider.com/kiera-wilmot-lawyer-hoping-to...</a>
Donated. I often wonder what the motivation is behind charges like these. It's often political, as in the Swartz case. But I think usually, it's simply that the DAs get satisfaction from being bullies.
Even if you still think she's guilty as sin, ask yourself whether you trust the American justice system enough to let her go through the ringer without financial support.
I'm not trolling.<p>Why does this girl deserve attention? Why did she get it? I genuinely can't come up with a reason.<p>Are you guys prepared to contribute to the legal funds of everyone who is expelled and charged with crimes for unfair reasons? Because this is absolutely not out of ordinary, and I've personally seen a 12-year-old expelled and nearly charged with a crime because his mother packed him a steak knife without realizing the school's zero-tolerance policy.<p>I wish this girl the best and she deserves a fair trial, but sometimes I wonder if society's tack of showering money on people's legal fund merely because they made news puts incentives in the right places...<p>If you down vote, can you explain why? I'd like to have an objective conversation about this without drive-by downvotes to shut me up.