May 31, 2013
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It's not as though a bunch of people in central Florida have been
consciously conspiring about the best way to trash a 16-year-old girl's
life, but the effect of their collective personal and institutional
stupidity may well produce the same effect. At first there was no sign
that any of them much cared, but now there's a ray of hope for a just
outcome. Read on.
This cultural stupidity in Florida isn't an
all-American sort of thing that could happen anywhere—and probably has
in a variety of forms similar to the recent mindlessness that led school
officials to call the police who called the prosecutor who decided,
over the phone, to have a 16-year-old girl arrested as an adult and
charged with two felonies under state law because she did an outdoors
experiment that blew up an 8 oz. water bottle with the force of a small
firecracker, doing no damage and harming no one.
This is the case
of 11th grader Kiera Wilmot, a Bartow High School honor student with
straight A's and a perfect behavior record, according to school
officials. Sometime around 7 a.m. on Monday, April 22, she tried an
experiment with a friend watching: she mixed hydrochloric acid (in a
toilet bowl cleaner) with a bit of aluminum foil inside a plastic water
bottle—a trick known familiarly as a "Drano bomb" or "works bomb." As
predicted (and shown in video), shortly after Kiera Wilmot mixed the
ingredients and put the cap on the bottle, hydrogen gas was produced,
with enough pressure to pop the top off the bottle with the sound of a
small firecracker.
Arguably, that was a stupid thing to do, at least on school grounds.
So the Question Quickly Arises, Are There Any Grown-Ups Here?
Then
the adults got involved and took the stupidity to higher levels,
quickly producing a stupidity tsumani of an all too familiar American
kind.
The first adult on the scene is Dan Durham the assistant
principal in charge of discipline at Bartow High. He hears the bottle
pop outside the building before the school day starts. He goes to
investigate. He finds Kiera Wilmot and she tells him the whole story.
She
tells him it's an experiment she was doing in anticipation of the
science fair. Apparently not believing her, perhaps fearing an
international terror conspiracy, Durham calls the science teacher (who
remains anonymous). The science teacher says that Kiera Wilmot's bottle
pop has nothing to do with science class, so his skirts are clean. Of
course what she does for science class is different from the science
fair, but apparently no one figures that part out.
Continuing his
enforcement, Dan Durham calls in the cops, which is easy enough since
there's a "resource officer" on the premises.
At some point
principal Ron Pritchard avoids involvement and allows the situation to
continue to spin out of control. Faced with a bright young 16-year-old
honor student with a perfect behavior record, who admits she just did an
experiment that was louder than she'd expected, principal Pritchard
doesn't act to put Kiera Wilmot's harmless behavior in perspective.
An Educator With a Passive-Aggressive Vicious Streak
Instead,
with a kind of passive-aggressive viciousness, he ignores the best
interests of a child under his care, he doesn't exercise leadership or
good judgment, he stays out of the way. Maybe he thinks he's defending
the institution, or himself, but whatever he was thinking, he lets law
enforcement help make things worse.
And the principal knew all
along what was real. Playing the kindly old duff on TV later, he said of
Kiera Wilmot: "She just wanted to see what would happen and I think it
shocked her that - because she was very honest with us when we were out
there talking and I think, I think it kind of shocked her that it did
that."
That was a few days later, when he knew full well how his
own inaction had contributed to Kiera Wilmot getting arrested and
charged as an adult with felony charges alleging she "discharged a
weapon" and "discharged a destructive device."
Kiera Wilmot's
weapon/device was an 8 oz. water bottle with toilet bowl cleaner and
aluminum that hurt no one and destroyed nothing.
But principal
Pritchard told a TV reporter: "She's a good kid and, you know, she made a
bad choice and stuff and, uh - I don't think that - she was not trying
to be malicious to harm anybody or destroy something at school or
anything else."
In Florida educational circles, apparently, the
offense of "a bad choice and stuff" is more than enough to put a child
at risk of spending 5 years in jail and having a felony on her record
for the rest of her life.
Why Would You Expect Public Servants to Exercise Any Discretion?
After school officials exercise no discretion, neither does the school's resource officer.
In
his report, Bartow PD school resource officer Gregory Rhoden
characterized the event as a "destructive device/weapons incident."
Rhoden met first with assistant principal Durham, who was the official
complainant. According to his report, Rhoden did not meet with the
principal or anyone else other than Kiera Wilmot, whom he arrested,
handcuffed, Mirandized, and questioned.
She told Rhoden the same
story principal Pritchard said she told him, except that Rhoden reports
there was a male friend who helped Kiera Wilmot do her bottle pop
experiment. "At this time efforts are being made to identify Wilmot's
friend," wrote Rhoden, a 1993 graduate of the same high school.
"I
then contacted assistant state attorney Tammy Glotfelty via telephone. I
advised a.s.a. Glotfelty of the circumstances of the case and she
advised this officer to file charges of possessing or discharging
weapons or firearms at a school sponsored event or on school property
F.S.S. 790.115(1) and making, possessing, throwing, projecting, placing,
or discharging any destructive device F.S.S. 790.161 (A)," Rhoden's
report said.
It concluded, "I completed a cost affidavit and property receipt for the plastic bottle. The bottle was impounded as evidence."
Lodged As a Juvenile, Expelled by the School, At the Mercy of the Law Kiera Wilmot was taken to the juvenile assessment center. She has remained there since April 22.
Bartow
High School expelled her the same day, with no due process, saying
there was no choice under the district's zero tolerance policy. At the
end of that day, the school system seemed to be done with Kiera Wilmot -
mission accomplished - unless she exercises her right to appeal to the
school board.
Belatedly, the story emerged, apparently starting
on April 24 with pretty straightforward coverage by TV station WTSP in
Tampa. Posted online, the story drew almost unanimous sympathy for Kiera
Wilmot, along with more general observations like "Florida incarcerates
children at a rate higher than the national average. We need to stop
the school-to-prison-pipeline" and "This country has become a malevolent
joke" and "Where can we petition the stupidity of this paranoia?"
The answer to that question is two places: Change.org and ACLU.org.
Initial Reporting Is Shallow, Ducks Hard Questions
While
WTSP reporter Melanie Michael blonde, was even-handed, her report was
remarkably shallow. Although she had Principal Pritchard on camera, she
didn't get him to answer questions about why he thought the school's
response was appropriate, or why he thought the punishment wasn't
disproportionate, or what responsibility a school has for preserving its
students' futures.
The intensity of the coverage of this story Ð
and increased focus on the apparent injustice to Kiera Wilmot Ð picked
up with an April 26 blog post on WTF Florida, on the web page of the
Miami New Times, summarizing the event with a tone of disbelief under
the headline: "Florida Teen Girl Charged With Felony After Science
Experiment Goes Bad."
That blog post also reported the unsigned,
official statement in standard bureaucratese released by the Polk County
School District, mostly if not all officials, presumably:
"Anytime
a student makes a bad choice it is disappointing to us. Unfortunately,
the incident that occurred at Bartow High School yesterday was a serious
breach of conduct. In order to maintain a safe and orderly learning
environment, we simply must uphold our code of conduct rules. We urge
our parents to join us in conveying the message that there are
consequences to actions. We will not compromise the safety and security
of our students and staff."
What Consequences Are There For Bad Bureaucrats' Decisions?
The
school system bases its literally mindless response on its "zero
tolerance" policy, which apparently includes zero tolerance for
assessment, analysis, deliberation, or proportionality.
The school
district statement echoes the irrelevant and completely false argument
attributed to unnamed "local authorities" that: "In this day and age, in
this climate, you cannot be too careful." That is the argument from
panic that, in effect, says the longing for safety justifies a police
state.
"Unfortunately, what she did falls into our code of conduct
É It's grounds for immediate expulsion," said the district's Senior
Director of Strategic Communications/Community Relations Leah
Lauderdale.
The official response to Kiera Wilmot makes a mockery
of the Polk County Public Schools web site's promotional video that
slickly touts "rigorous, relevant learning experiences," the effort to
"prepare every student to enter college," and that "graduation for all
students is Goal #1."
Reaction around the internet has been building ever since, overwhelmingly in support of Kiera Wilmot.
On
May 1 on MSNBC, Chris Hayes covered the story, talking to youth
advocate Khary Lazarre-White, executive director of Bro/Sis. In his
view, the Florida case reflects a wider American failure: "Really what
it is, this is about adults who are refusing to do their
responsibility—this is about parents, teachers, and school districts -
and that needs to be the response, not law enforcement, because it
really is a question about kind of an America do we want to see."
Florida May Be Worst Case, But the Problem Is National
Arguing that too many schools have stopped responding to children's needs in a child-centered way, Lazarre-White said:
"It's
emblematic of a national issue. Over three million cases of expulsion
and severe suspensions across the country, and it's a zero tolerance
policy that is expelling children for the kinds of things that got us
sent to the principal's office or talked to by a teacher Ð at worst Ð
when we were in school."
On May 5, two days after Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, TV station WAFB ran a summary of Kiera Wilmot's story, the
station's online poll had 90% of respondents supporting her and calling
her punishment too harsh.
Through all of this, the Wilmot family
has stayed out of the public eye. Kiera's twin sister still goes to the
same school, but she didn't join her friends who went on TV to talk
about her. Their mother is a single, working mom. For all the support
they've been getting from afar, locally they've had no openly public
defenders.
But Kiera Wilmot does have an attorney, Larry Hardaway
of Hardaway & Associates in Lakeland, Florida. In an interview May 3
with Business Insider, he sounded like the first sane adult involved in
the case.
Kiera Wilmot's Attorney Hopes to Prevent Further Harm
Hardaway reports that he has gotten the school board to stay its expulsion proceedings "until we can work out a resolution."
He
says that he is negotiating with the state attorney's office, which has
not yet decided whether to charge her as an adult or a juvenile, or
whether to charge her at all - "We will have further negotiations next
week about how to move forward without harming her."
Hardaway
speaks highly of Assistant State Attorney Tammy Glotfelty, calling her
"a very fine prosecutorÉ. There are prosecutors that are sometimes
hardened, and aren't as sensitive as they should be, but that wouldn't
be Tammy Glotfelty."
In a recent juvenile case that Glotfelty
considered for about a month, she ended up deciding not to prosecute a
13-year-old boy for killing his brother when they were shooting at each
other with BB guns. Some have criticized Glotfelty for calling that
case, two boys, a "tragic accident," but seeming to fail to approach
Kiera Wilmot with the same degree of sensitivity.
Making a
recommendation over the phone, based only on third party information,
may strike some as less than careful, but if the prosecutors decided not
to file any charges, as Hardaway is advocating, that would at least
limit the damage to Kiera Wilmot.
In a Just Country, Wouldn't Someone Try to Make Kiera Wilmot Whole?
She'll
still have personal and family trauma to deal with, and a financial
burden, and likely social consequences if some unpleasant sort. Maybe
she can go back to school and graduate (Goal #1!) and even go to college
and have a decent life in spite of it all.
And Bartow High School
will have achieved its goal of giving her a "rigorous, relevant
learning experience" of an unusual, unfortunate, and sadly useful nature
for navigating contemporary America. She will have an object lesson
that those entrusted with your care won't always care for you, those
entrusted with your protection won't always protect you, and those
entrusted with guarding your rights won't always guard you.
It's
not a pretty picture of an insecure homeland, where it's hard to find
people in authority who can be trusted - but it is real.
And it wasn't a science project gone bad. It was an experiment that worked. As predicted.
Will Prosecutors' Reasonableness Be Shared by Education "Professionals?"
Update:
On May 15, the prosecutors announced that Kiera Wilmot would not face
further charges if she successfully completes a Diversion Program
agreement. The prosecutors office statement read, in its entirety:
Based
upon the facts and circumstances of the case, the lack of criminal
history of the child involved, and the action taken by the Polk County
School Board, the State Attorney's Office extended an offer of diversion
of prosecution to the child. The child and her guardian signed the
agreement to successfully complete the Department of Juvenile Justice
Diversion Program.
The pending case has been dismissed. No formal charges will be filed.
Attorney
Hardaway told reporters the same day that he and Kiera Wilmot and her
mother are continuing to discuss the situation with the Polk County
School Board. After principal Pritchard recommended that the "good kid"
be expelled, that recommendation was put on hold, awaiting action by the
prosecutors.
The next formal step is for the expulsion appeal to be heard by a school board hearing officer.
Kiera
Wilmot has now served a ten-day suspension and is completing 11th grade
at an alternative school. Hardaway said his client is eager to clear
her name because she's worried that people at her school think she's a
"terrorist."
By their own comments, school officials have always
known Kiera Wilmot was never anything like a terrorist. And now they
have an opportunity to deliver a powerful, positive message by admitting
they overreacted and expunging the whole episode from the record.
In education jargon, it's called a teachable moment. In life it's called fair.
And
if school officials are looking for a role model, they can study the
response of a former NASA engineer, Homer Hickam, to Kiera Wilmot's
situation. Hickam, whose personal story was portrayed in the movie
"October Sky," has given Kiera Wilmot a scholarship to the summer
program at the United States Advanced Space Academy, part of the Space
Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, and he's raising money for a scholarship
for her sister as well.
As a teenager in West Virginia, Hickam
conducted unauthorized experiments with rockets at his high school,
which also led to police taking him away in handcuffs.
William M. Boardman has
over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV, print journalism, and
non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont judiciary. He has
received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination from
the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
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