Last year, 16-year-old Kiera Wilmont set off a small chemical reaction as part of a teacher-assigned science project. Wilmont’s school – Bartow High in Bartow, Florida – responded with a fit of deranged and nonsensical hysteria, expelling her from the school for violating an arcane zero-tolerance policy. Wilmont, a promising student, was then arrested and charged with multiple felonies.
Though the school relented after facing a storm of negative publicity, Wilmont is now struggling to move on with her life.
“My science teacher said we could each pick a science project that has to do with biology, chemistry or physics,” Wilmont wrote last year. “He said we couldn’t do a baking soda and vinegar volcano because that was at the fifth grade level.”
But Wilmont, a chemistry enthusiast, still wanted her project to involve a chemical reaction. She decided to find another way to create a volcano. “Someone suggested to me to combine aluminum foil and toilet bowl cleaner in a water bottle to make a volcano.”
This admixture is known colloquially as a “pop bottle bomb.” Yet, though the school reacted as if Wilmont has accidentally assembled a biological weapon, in truth, the combination does little more than make a loud popping noise. Pop bottle bombs have not been blamed for any deaths or serious injuries – in contrast to store-bought fireworks, which cause a number of each every year.
Wilmont’s story does have some happy silver lining. After learning of her case through the media, Homer Hickam – the subject of the film “October Sky” – awarded Wilmont and her sister scholarships to Advance Space Academy at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.
Interviews with Bartow High administrators reveal that they never doubted that Wilmont meant no harm. The school simply cared nothing for Wilmont’s future – and placed far more value on its abstract policies than the students they are presumably intended to benefit.
Related: Florida Bill: No More Punishing Kids for Playing With Imaginary Guns
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