You want an example of how fear has pushed society off the deep end? Check out the case of 16-year-old Kiera Wilmot.
A student of Bartow High School in Florida, Wilmot did something worthy at least a few weeks of after-school detention: She mixed a few chemicals together in the science lab and caused a small explosion. But she had no sinister intent. She was being a curious teen, doing something stupid and reckless.
Now she faces criminal charges and has been expelled from school. There was no damage and nobody was hurt, but she’s being treated like a terrorist.
Florida’s WTSP News 10 reports that Wilmot was charged with “possession/discharge of a weapon on school property and discharging a destructive device,” both felonies. According to WTSP, Wilmot has been expelled. She will need to finish high school through an explusion program
By all accounts, Wilmot has been a good, well-behaved student who gets good grades. But because she did something stupid in a society overfilled with fear, the authorities want to make a convicted felon of her.
Back when I was in high school, we made stupid decisions all the time. We threw rocks through windows. We pulled fire alarms and ran. We set off stink bombs. When caught, we were punished, as we deserved to be. But the police and bomb squad weren’t called in, as they are today.
Wilmot did wrong, intentionally or not. She deserves some kind of punishment. But felony charges? That’s way over the line. It illustrates how easily we overreact these days whenever something goes boom.
