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The difference, of course, is that they were congratulated on their curiosity or slapped on the wrist, not hit with life-altering felonies.
See also:
- Florida School Responds to Criticism for Expelling Student Over Science Project: "There Are Consequences to Actions"
- Florida Teen Girl Charged With Felony After Science Experiment Goes Bad
Wilmot was booted from school and criminally charged last week after mixing toilet bowl cleaner and aluminum foil in a plastic bottle on school grounds, despite the fact that no one was hurt and she told her principal she was conducting a "science fair experiment."
The details of the case have led to an outcry from science educators, particularly because Wilmot was apparently a good student with a good behavior record and because she's a young black woman -- a demographic severely underrepresented in the science world.
The campaign to support her may well have started with an eloquently furious blog from DNLee, a biologist who writes for Scientific American. She writes about the race aspects of Wilmot's case and then notes another important fact: Anyone with any scientific curiosity has had some experiments go wrong.
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. Science is not a clean. It is very messy and it is riddled with mistakes and mishaps.
Andrew Thaler, a deep-sea biologist in North Carolina who writes as "Southern Fried Scientist," then challenged his Twitter followers to share tales of their own mishaps that went unpunished, with a #KieraWilmot tag.
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What do you say, Miami? Ever blown anything up for science? Tell us about it in the comments or tweet @miaminewtimes with the tag #kierawilmot.
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