Posted on 01/16/2010 6:16:53 AM PST by ozark hilljilly
SAN DIEGO Students were evacuated from Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School in the Chollas View neighborhood Friday afternoon after an 11-year-old student brought a personal science project that he had been making at home to school, authorities said.
Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said the student had been making the device in his home garage. A vice principal saw the student showing it to other students at school about 11:40 a.m. Friday and was concerned that it might be harmful, and San Diego police were notified.
The school, which has about 440 students in grades 6 to 8 and emphasizes technology skills, was initially put on lockdown while authorities responded.
Luque said the project was made of an empty half-liter Gatorade bottle with some wires and other electrical components attached. There was no substance inside.
When police and the Metro Arson Strike Team responded, they also found electrical components in the student's backpack, Luque said. After talking to the student, it was decided about 1 p.m. to evacuate the school as a precaution while the item was examined. Students were escorted to a nearby playing field, and parents were called and told they could come pick up their children.
A MAST robot took pictures of the device and X-rays were evaluated. About 3 p.m., the device was determined to be harmless, Luque said.
Luque said the project was intended to be a type of motion-detector device.
Both the student and his parents were "very cooperative" with authorities, Luque said. He said fire officials also went to the student's home and checked the garage to make sure items there were neither harmful nor explosive.
"There was nothing hazardous at the house," Luque said.
The student will not be prosecuted, but authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling, the spokesman said. The student violated school policies, but there was no criminal intent, Luque said.
"There will be no (criminal) charges whatsoever," Luque said.
Police and fire officials also will not seek to recover costs associated with responding to the incident, the spokesman said.
Luque said both the student and his parents were extremely upset.
"He was very shaken by the whole situation, as were his parents," Luque said.
The school is located on Carolina Lane near Hilltop Drive.
Adjacent Gompers Charter Middle School was not affected during the incident, police Sgt. Ray Battrick said.
Millennial Middle School opened in fall 2008. It is part of the San Diego Unified School District.
They would have had to gotten a warrant to search my garage. Also, I wonder if they family will fight the counseling? My guess is they won't because they have succumbed to the state.
a bit of overkill on the part the school administration. sorta of knocking down the creativity of an intelligent child. maybe if the school administration would stop considering political correctness and sucking up to the teat of the O administration the children could learn something. eductaed teachers whom certification should be stripped from them for stupidity, talking with the children in how the achieved the project would have determined that the project was completely harmless. Dumb school administrators and teachers yield dumb students
—when I was an engineering student in the early ‘sixties, it was well established that those who flunked out of the sciences should go into “education”—degree easy and guaranteed—they are now leading our “educational” establishment—
Back in the 60’s, when i was in High School, a geeky science nerd did a Science Project that was confiscated by the FBI!
We NEVER found out what it was.
Mine was on the Psychological Effect of the color ?
“PINK” on Prisoners!
Sheriff Joe must have found out about MINE! hahahahahahaa
How did they know the bottle was empty? A half liter of hydrogen would make for a fairly large boom.
His father needs to Jap-slap the smack off principal and anyone else who didn’t simply ASK the kid what the thing was?? Apparently that was too complicated for any of these PC clowns. Somehow I seriously DOUBT I would have been “cooperative” with a bunch of jack-boots who arrested my son and dragged me and my wife “downtown” for NOTHING!!
It’s not just overkill. Afterward, the authorities blamed the kid and his parents for the incident, instead of the blatant stupidity of the school personnel.
“I wonder why it never occurred to the vice-principal to ask Little Billy what he had made instead of calling in the troops first?”
___________________
Here’s how it should have went down:
(Vice-principal is walking down the hall, sees a group of boys intently interested in something little Timmy is holding.)
V-P:Good morning, boys. Hey Timmy, what’s that you got there?
Timmy: Oh Hi, Mr. Sharpley! Check this out-me and dad are making a motion detector for the front porch. See? (proceeds to explain how it works, but since I’m not as smart as an 11 yr. old, I can’t.) It’s almost done. I was going to finish it during free time today-I got the rest of it in my bookbag.
V-P: Hmmmm, wow that is really something! Real clever. Say, Timmy, it might not be a good idea to have it in your bookbag all day, it might get jostled about too much. How about we take it to the science lab for now and then when it’s your free time, you can work on it there, ‘kay?
Timmy: Oh OK Mr. Sharpley, See ya guys!
(Timmy and Mr. Sharpley go down the hall to the science lab. The project is safely stowed away. Mr. Sharpley places a call to Timmy’s folks who confirm that yes, it is indeed a homemade motion detector. End of story and y’all wouldn’t be reading it right now.)
—no, it wouldn’t—
Question: Why are we graduating illiterates?
Hint: (Students are being taught by people who are incapable of thinking.)
Is this community a giant retard commune or is anyone there going to stand up for this obviously talented student?
As someone who has a degree in education (K-12), I can attest that education majors are some of the dumbest hammers in the box.
Not wanting to associate with unintelligent yet arrogant people is part of the reason why, though I am more than qualified, I am not teaching.
How frickin’ stupid can people get? This vice principal should be fired, the police shouldn’t have responded. When did our school officials start calling the police for every little frickin’ thing kids do? And a lock down over electrical components? It is a science class, what the he** do they think the kids will be doing, 18th century projects?
2 H2(g) + O2(g) → 2 H2O(l) + 572 kJ (286 kJ/mol)
Hydrogen gas forms explosive mixtures with air in the concentration range 4-74% (volume per cent of hydrogen in air) and with chlorine in the range 5-95%. The mixtures spontaneously detonate by spark, heat or sunlight."
I guess that's why it's used top fuel the main engines of the Space Shuttle. Oh, there was this little problem as well...
Imagine their reaction if it it had looked like a gun barrel...
Thanks ozark hilljilly.
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