This EXACT same thing happened to me.
I had some liquid Nitrogen for a science experiment at school, put it in a 20oz Coke bottle.
Of course that's not something you do without knowing mostly what will happen, as I suspect was also the case with this girl.
I took it to the bathroom (somewhere with no objects or people to damage) and it exploded, making a bit of noise.
I was expelled and charged with the same sorts of felony charges - constructing a bomb, detonating a bomb at a school, etc.
With a small bit of lawyering the charges were reduced to one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct for making a loud noise. For that I was able to get "diversion" (like a lighter form of probation for juveniles), just some community service and drug testing, and could have my record sealed at 18.
I was not, however, able to successfully appeal my expulsion.
I hope that this girl will be able to get a similar outcome and not end up as a felon because of this silliness.
This was in the middle of my 10th grade year. My next two and a half years doing home schooling and at the only private school in the city that would take me were terrific, I am very glad my life took a turn the way it did.
Yep, it used up most of what they had set aside for college though, which contributed in large part to my not finishing college, but that is something I am also glad turned out the way it did.
I am surprised at how much of the discussion here has focused on race and racism. I don't see that being a factor here; this is simply how public schools in America work.
I did not, however, have a perfect disciplinary record; I had been suspended a couple times for "hacking" type activity.
Well, IMHO, this story is about racism. I've read too many stories on african americans ending up with criminal records for things I've seen non-african americans do without consequence.
Also, I have a similar experience with chemistry class in high school. While a white kid burned holes, dropped chemicals he had no business messing with, and other moderate damage to school property more than 5 times, _in front of everyone including the teacher_. I did one thing, that didn't endager anyone, didn't break anything. I booted up an old AppleII computer and played music on it(the bubble-bobble invincibility theme music I coded in BASIC)..... ended up in the priciple's office for "tampering with chemistry class computer system". This computer wasn't doing anything; it was covered in dust.
Mom & I went to the principle and, as it turns out, the principle totally tore up the write-up from my chemistry teacher in front of us, then she said "Don't worry about it. I know that teacher of yours. This isn't going on any records. It ends here." She was white, in case that impacts this little story of mine. Chemistry teacher was a white male. And my parents were born & raised in Nigeria.
I'm sorry that you had that unfair experience. However, the same story could have happened if you were white (it's very very common for some people to be more disliked by a teacher than others, or less good at concealing their actions - resulting in selective enforcement), but then you wouldn't have white racism to blame for the unfairness of it, and no basis on which to get public sympathy. That kind of thing occurs for many reasons and no reason, all the time.
So, indeed this can happen if you're white - as shown by the person I was just replying to. Let's go with that for a moment: The nasty gotcha-part of this is that while it may or may not happen completely randomly with no particular concentration on minorities, the way out of the situation is not equally accessible.
Since minorities tend to have less financial resources(for reasons we'll avoid talking about right now), they're much less likely to have a lawyer like psutor's parents had.
If both me & him got a felony charge thrown at us, he'd get out of it. I don't think my parents could afford a lawyer at that time.
This is kind of an important element. Even if whites & blacks get charged with the same frequency(and I don't believe that), the chances of the white(or asian) family having the money to get a lawyer to fight are much higher.
Kinda like how kids of rich families can kill people in a drunk driving incident and get away with little consequence. Money and race have an impact on the how severe your punishment will be for a particular crime and even the probability that your crime will be reported in the first place.
You are surprised at how much the discussion has focused on race? You must be somewhat sheltered. I am white and nerdy and a relative new comer to the United States and not particularly interested in race issues but even I know that race disparities in both arrests and incarcerations are huge. Black females are imprisoned 3 times as much as white females, and make that 6 times for black males. Do you really think that this girl has the same chances as if she were white?
Blind comparison of imprisonment rates is misleading when you ignore confounding variables like income, geographic distribution, parental age and marital status.
I was expelled and charged with the same sorts of felony charges - constructing a bomb, detonating a bomb at a school, etc. With a small bit of lawyering the charges were reduced to one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct for making a loud noise. For that I was able to get "diversion" (like a lighter form of probation for juveniles), just some community service and drug testing, and could have my record sealed at 18. I was not, however, able to successfully appeal my expulsion.
I hope that this girl will be able to get a similar outcome and not end up as a felon because of this silliness.
This was in the middle of my 10th grade year. My next two and a half years doing home schooling and at the only private school in the city that would take me were terrific, I am very glad my life took a turn the way it did.