
Kiera Wilmot, student who caused small explosion, won't face charges - shrikant
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-kiera-wilmot-no-prosecution-20130515,0,4556500.story
======
droithomme
The title of the article is incorrect, charges are not being dropped.

Diversion is a plea bargain in which you _plead guilty_ to the charges and
receive probation. If you meet probation terms such as random drug testing and
so forth, then your conviction record is "erased". Sometimes how this is
handled procedurally is the signed guilty plea is held in a separate file and
not entered into the main system, and at the end of diversion the file stays
in the separate file if you have complied with all terms, or is entered into
the main system if you haven't complied with all terms.

Calling this "dropping charges" couldn't be further from the truth - this is a
forced guilty plea. Since she "signed the agreement", the matter is over - she
has admitted to charges and is legally guilty and has received probation, and
that's the end of it.

~~~
dopamean
As someone who has been prosecuted for a crime in Florida (it was semi-
serious) and has had a few friends enter the pre-trial diversion program there
I would like to point a few things out.

Pre-trial diversion isn't cheap if you are of limited means. You have monthly
fees you have to pay and you likely have fines and penalties to pay too. A
lapse in any of those payments can result in what is called a "writ" being
issued. It is essentially a bench warrant for your arrest. I have had this
happen to me. It sucks.

Kiera is 14 and so I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt that she is
not a drug user. However, if she is she better get clean soon. Florida loves
to drug test people in an attempt to violate them on their probation. A failed
drug test will have you removed from the diversion program and you will face
the original charges in court.

Finally, if the diversion program is completed without incident there are some
lasting effects. Even though the charges will ultimately go away there are
some things that wont. For instance, a friend of mine recently applied for a
job that did not simply ask if he had been convicted of a felony. It asked
specifically if he had ever pleaded guilty, nolo contendere, or entered a pre-
trial diversion program. Completing the program smoothly does not necessarily
mean that this incident will be completely over for her.

Shame on the DA in this county for moving forward in this way. The police were
stupid to arrest her in the first place but hey, that's what they do.
Proceeding with criminal charges, particularly in a case where no one was hurt
and no property was damaged, is completely at the discretion of the DA.

This is bullshit and no one should be pleased with this outcome.

~~~
u2328
This is disgusting. Is this really how Florida treats its own? I grew up in
Southern California and I blew out the circuits on my junior high's science
building once. I got a firm talking to, a two-day suspension, and a uncool
nickname out of it, but that was it.

~~~
csense
> I got a firm talking to, a two-day suspension, and a uncool nickname out of
> it, but that was it.

Was this before, or after, the Columbine school shootings in 1999 and the
terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001?

~~~
shocks
I realise you haven't directly stated that you support these actions, I would
like to make the following comment since it seams to me that you think school
shootings and terrorist attacks are valid reasons for this behaviour.

I believe while you are under the impression your government and law
enforcement agencies are just doing more to protect you, you are actually
relinquishing your freedom in exchange for false hope and allowing your
government to nerf the world, and allowing the terrorists to win.

Arresting 11 year olds for bringing a plastic knife to school is ridiculous
behaviour and should not be allowed (or encounraged) under the guise of
"protecting us from school attacks and terrorists".

(I say 'your' because I am actually a UK citizen. While the ridiculous
behaviour of the Americans is not really a concern of mine, I worry that other
countries and governments will follow suit. That said, we're not dumb enough
to allow rampant legal gun ownership. Sorry.)

~~~
icambron
Nor did it indirectly state it. It's certainly true that those events resulted
in increased sensitivity towards school violence and explosions, so it's worth
asking what context the GP's actions happened in-- doesn't imply the
sensitivity is a good idea. I don't believe you can read any value judgement
out of csense's comment at all. Don't put words in other people's mouths and
then lecture them about it.

Edit: clarity

------
guelo
The assholes at the state attorney's office gave her a "diversion of
prosecution" instead of completely dropping the matter. And the school
district is still considering further disciplinary actions.

The state attorney and the school district are the ones that should be
expelled.

~~~
itafroma
> The source article is a much more complete and informative story
> [http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-
> ki...](http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-ki..).

Indeed. From that article, it's not an unconditional dropping of charges:

> The office of State Attorney Jerry Hill, whose jurisdiction includes Polk,
> said that it extended "an offer of diversion of prosecution to the child."
> That typically means a probationary-like program that allows the youngster
> to perform community service or meet other conditions and then avoid a
> criminal record.

> Brian Haas, an assistant state attorney and spokesman for the office, said
> he could not provide details of the diversion-program agreement reached in a
> juvenile's case. But he said the teenager and her guardian had signed the
> agreement.

------
HarryHirsch
The arbitrariness of the prosecution in the US is just staggering. Here you
have this young lady who did something stupidly dangerous, pled guilty, and
has been shipped off to an "alternative school" (read: school for criminals-
in-training).

On the other hand you have the Texas Tech explosion,
([http://www.csb.gov/texas-tech-university-chemistry-lab-
explo...](http://www.csb.gov/texas-tech-university-chemistry-lab-explosion/)),
where a fifth-year grad student (!) was told to prepare 100 mg of a genuinely
fickle explosive, but instead cooked up 10 grams, which he then ground in a
mortar (!!), and it predictably exploded, injuring the fellow gravely.

His fellow students had concerns about his working habits, which are on the
record, and neither the student, nor his supervisor were charged with
anything. This isn't correct.

~~~
olefoo
Ah, beg to differ. The young lady in question is of the duskier race and
therefore the prosecution was not arbitrary; but according to long and
traditional standards designed to maintain the social hierarchy without which
society would crumble.

//satirical if that's not obvious.

------
dickfickling
While I don't think she ought to have been charged as a criminal, calling this
"an unauthorized science experiment which lightly damaged an eight ounce
plastic water bottle" is blatantly dishonest. As others have said in previous
threads, this girl wasn't conducting a science experiment, she was blowing
something up. People could have been injured (google drano bombs). Again, I
don't condone legal action against her, but praising her as a scientist
doesn't seem like the right course of action either.

Edit: To be clear, I have no problem with explosions - 'for science' or
otherwise. I have a problem with explosions on school property, unsanctioned
by professors, and without proper (or any) safety equipment.

~~~
rickhanlonii
Blowing something up--even for only the sake of seeing what happens (exclusive
of malicious intent)--is at it's core a scientific endeavor. From DNLee at the
Scientific American blog[1]:

>I can’t name a single scientist or engineer, who hadn’t blown up, ripped
apart, disassembled something at home or otherwise cause a big ruckus at
school all in the name of curiosity, myself included. Science is not a clean.
It is very messy and it is riddled with mistakes and mishaps.

I think it's time we start making a distinction between an explosion which is
made with the motivation of violence and destruction, and just explosions.

[1]: <http://goo.gl/8Lpp2>

~~~
tiredofcareer
So I should be able to manufacture pipe bombs because I'm curious how big the
explosion is, then? Maybe I can try one out on my school's football field? No
malicious intent, just curiosity to 'see what happens', so by your logic I
should be square right?

Or perhaps I could study the inhalant properties of anthrax powder at my desk
at work, because I have no malicious intent and just want 'see what happens'?

There's a difference between _science_ and _doing something reckless that
could, theoretically, endanger others without scientific safeguards in place_.
Public commentary on this issue is _completely_ ignoring that.

~~~
DanBC
> Public commentary on this issue is completely ignoring that.

No, lots of public commentary is condemning her for what she did but not want
to see her entire future destroyed by federal conviction. Even if she's
acquitted it's traumatic and destructive.

It's the kind of thing that could have been dealt with entirely within the
school.

~~~
tiredofcareer
I was referring mainly to Hacker News and similar communities. Everybody
condemning her has been downvoted to oblivion on these threads.

~~~
DanBC
I condemned her for what she did, but I also said that it was stupid for the
school to involve police, and that it was something that should have been
dealt with in school.

I was not downvoted.

------
duaneb
Well I'm gonna write some letters.

Jerry Hill, contact info on the right side: <http://www.sao10.com/>

Bartow High contact information (it seems that Ronald Pritchard would be the
person to contact): <http://www.bartowhighschool.com/Contact%20Us.html>

Note: I'm all for writing letters, but civil letters will get you the
farthest.

------
mindcrime
Finally, some _good_ news today. And a victory for common sense. I, for one,
am very happy about this news. But there's still the issue of her high-school
education, to be resolved.

~~~
SeanDav
She is already at a new high school. Looks like she will be ok.

Now if only someone could charge the original instigating teachers and
officials for wasting police time or even better, place them in an institute
for the criminally stupid...

~~~
Anechoic
_She is already at a new high school._

The Orlando Sentinel story linked in the OP says she "is now attending classes
at an alternative school." Is that "alternative" as in "another" or
"alternative school" as in "remedial school geared toward at-risk youth"?

~~~
mindcrime
I took it as the latter. "Alternative school", in my experience, is a very
specific term and not just a synonym for "another, different school".

------
desireco42
I can't believe that with all the outrage and coverage this matter got, she
will still face expulsion from school. Isn't there anyone sane there? Could
this prosecutor drop the case by any chance.

I don't consider her completely innocent, but still this was nothing that
would require such severe penalties.

------
duncan_bayne
I donated to her defense fund - assuming there's money left over, I hope they
just give her the cash. I've sent a message to that effect to the person
organising the fundraising.

~~~
dnautics
I donated, too, I believe the plan from the start to convert it into an
educational trust.

------
danso
I know that in this unfair world, we should be happy enough that her life has
been spared and that she can live the life of an average teen, whether it's in
science or not. But in my Hollywood version of life, this day will be a
poignant flashback 10 years later when Kiera invents cold fusion.

------
rhizome
I wonder why it took weeks.

~~~
davorak
Perhaps they waited for people to lose some interest in the story. Or to try
and let cooler heads prevail.

------
graycat
Scientists, blowing things up, losing fingers, eyes? Does it happen? I mean
with serious scientists, I mean the most serious?

Hmm?????

Try

<http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf>

From chemistry lab, remember the Bunsen burner? Yup, there was a Bunsen, a
chemist. He was blind in one eye, from some chemistry experiment gone wrong.

They called him 'fingers' because on one hand he didn't have any -- one of his
science experiments blew off his fingers.

The PDF above, it's a total, thigh slapping, laugh yourself dizzy riot! It's
about the chemistry research for liquid rocket fuels, not really for the huge
US Saturn moon rocket (just kerosene and liquid oxygen) but for smaller
rockets such as anti-aircraft missiles. It's a riot: The stories of "red
fuming nitric acid" mixed with all kinds of stuff they could dream up, using
mostly just the TIFO method -- try it and find out -- blowing holes in the
roofs of labs, creating stinks that make a skunk smell like roses, doing
things in cities that should only be done in deserts 100 miles from anyone,
doing things in deserts, e.g., creating a column of smoke two miles high, that
maybe shouldn't be done this side of Pluto, is a total SCREAM. Then there were
the 'mono-propellents' -- no mixing or ignition required. Some were weak, say,
for just gentle orientation of a spacecraft. Others were attempted for lots of
thrust. Alas, once the reaction starts, might it just quickly move to the
whole supply of mono-propellent? Yup, darned right. And, then, right --
kaBOOM.

It's standard: Have much curiosity about chemistry, and some things will
likely go BOOM. It's true at 14, 40, with a chemistry Ph.D. or not.

I was never injured, but not for lack of a lot of chances. For one, apparently
I didn't use enough KNO3 with my C and S! Dad had a 100 pound bag of NH4NO3 to
make the lawn green. It REALLY made the lawn green. Put that stuff on and get
some rain and have to mow the lawn every other day, and it's a DARK green.
AMAZING stuff. It was readily available because the surrounding areas were
full of cotton farms, and it did great things for cotton.

I only worked with about a 1/2 cup of NH4NO3 at a time and got nothing out of
it. Good thing: I might have lost a hand.

Once actually learn some real chemistry, then see (1) even if know a lot of
chemistry, messing with such energetic reactions, where the reactions or some
unintended byproducts might be wildly unstable, and, as of the time of the PDF
above, even good chemistry can't predict what will/will not be unstable, can
be dangerous and (2) if its not dangerous, then just do the energy
calculations on paper and f'get about mixing up the actual ingredients.

Still, Al and NaOH drain cleaner, just gather the whole school together and
tell them -- just do NOT do such things because you or someone else might lose
a hand, eye, etc. Then DROP it. For the DA, hmm, add him to the list with the
person in Boston who went after Aaron.

------
qwerta
Hilarious, change names and this could be a story from soviet union 50 years
ago.

