Black Teen Jailed for Science Experiment

By all accounts, Kiera Wilmot is an exemplary honor student and has a perfect behavior record. According to the principal of Bartow High School in Polk County, Florida, she is a “good kid” who has “never been in trouble before. Ever.” But on April 22, when the 16-year-old acted on her intellectual curiosity by performing a chemistry experiment, she outrageously was expelled from school and dragged to a detention center in handcuffs at the behest of an assistant principal. Charged as an adult with two felonies—possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device—Kiera faces a possible five years in jail. Thanks to school and state authorities, her life is now upended.

The “weapon” and “destructive device” that Kiera “discharged” was a small plastic water bottle in which, in preparation for a science fair, she mixed common household chemicals and aluminum foil to see how they would react. The chemical reaction triggered a tiny pop “like a firecracker,” harmlessly blowing off the lid and producing a small amount of smoke. No one was injured, and no property was damaged. The only casualty was the plastic bottle!

The punishment handed out to Kiera Wilmot exemplifies the systematic racist criminalization of black and minority students in the public schools that is embodied in punitive “zero tolerance” policies. Each year, more than three million students nationwide are suspended and over 100,000 expelled. Black students are three and a half times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers. According to the U.S. Department of Education, over 70 percent of students arrested and funneled through what has become known as the school-to-prison pipeline are black or Latino.

Borrowing a page from the sinister “war on drugs” crusade against blacks and other minorities, “zero-tolerance” policies spread through schools after Bill Clinton signed into law the 1994 Gun-Free Schools Act that mandates a one-year expulsion for any student possessing a weapon. What constitutes a weapon has proved very elastic: everything from pencils to Pop-Tarts and Hello Kitty toys. Even using their fingers as imaginary guns resulted in suspension for two 6-year-olds in Maryland. As a result of this “zero tolerance,” across the country black and minority students in segregated public schools confront conditions that resemble detention centers rather than a place of learning. A heavy police presence, metal detectors, video cameras, drug testing and locker searches are the norm. Tens of thousands have been arrested for what amounts to nothing other than typical juvenile behavior: tardiness, idle doodling, talking back and so on.

Even black children in kindergarten are treated as dangerous criminals. In 2012, six-year-old Salecia Johnson was suspended from school in Milledgeville, Georgia, handcuffed by police and placed in a holding cell after throwing a tantrum. She was charged with damage to property and simple battery. With black youth deemed expendable by the racist capitalist ruling class that has no jobs for them to fill, the “education” system is essentially a holding pen that serves to reinforce their isolation in a society where 28 percent of black men are destined to spend time behind bars.

Wilmot’s case is a grotesque expression of the class and race bias endemic to the American education system and society as a whole. It also points to the anti-science mind-set that permeates it. With the slashing of already meager funding and the stifling of creative potential, it is no surprise that U.S. students rank 35th internationally in math, between Azerbaijan and Croatia, and 29th in science, between Latvia and Lithuania—countries many Americans cannot identify on the map.

Kiera Wilmot’s ordeal has drawn thousands of supporters to her defense. Dozens of people, young and old, rallied in her support outside Polk County Courthouse last week. Thousands have signed petitions on the Internet demanding the rescinding of her expulsion and dropping the charges against her, and some individuals have initiated defense funds. Outraged scientists have also vented their fury in solidarity with Wilmot. As biologist Danielle N. Lee wrote in a Scientific American blog (1 May): “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.” She added that science “is very messy and it is riddled with mistakes and mishaps.”

Experimenting with science is not a crime, and scientific curiosity should not be punished. We demand the immediate reinstatement of Kiera Wilmot! Drop all the charges!