Zero tolerance follies
For those of us who remember the almost daily pronouncements
by Administration officials in the run-up to the Iraq invasion of 2003 about the
dangers posed by Saddam Hussein's arsenal of WMD's, we may have been a bit
non-plussed by the charges brought against the Boston Marathon bombers: "unlawfully using and conspiring to use a
weapon of mass destruction." Not to
understate the horrors inflicted by the bombing, but Sarin, anthrax, suitcase
nukes, that we can see. Pressure
cookers? As Spencer
Ackerman explains in Wired, though,
using a "destructive
device" qualifies as a weapon of mass destruction, and that's defined very
broadly: just about any old bomb,
including a home-made one, will do.
So I guess Kiera Wilmot can thank her lucky stars that she's
at least not facing Federal prosecution for what could have been a high school
science project gone wrong.
Wilmot, a 16-year-old student at Bartow High School in
Florida, mixed up some household chemicals -- toilet bowl cleaner aluminum foil
-- in a water bottle to see what would happen.
What happened is that a small explosion caused the top to pop off,
followed by billowing smoke. No one was
hurt -- the incident occurred outdoors -- and everyone agreed that Kiera Wilmot
hadn't intended to hurt anyone; her principal noted that she was "a good kid"
who "has never been in trouble before.
Ever." He had a little chat with
Kiera about the dangers of doing things like that, and Kiera "told us
everything and was very honest. She didn't
run or try to hide the truth."
So, chat had, no one's hurt, life goes on, right? Well, life goes on in Bartow High School, but
it does so without Kiera. She's not only
been expelled, but on Monday morning she was arrested and charged with "possession/discharge
of a weapon on school property" and "discharging a destructive device."
Oh, and more
news: those offenses are felonies, and Kiera will be
tried as an adult.
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