The 19-year-old Maui woman accused of bringing a fake bomb into Boston's Logan International Airport yesterday was a stellar student-athlete at Hawai'i Preparatory Academy and the news of her arrest stunned those at the small private school.[snip] "We were all very shocked because she was such an exemplary student," Hawai'i Prep spokeswoman Phyllis Kanekuni said after Simpson's arraignment in East Boston Municipal Court. "We hope the situation can be resolved quickly so she can proceed with her very bright future."
Simpson was born in March 1988 and entered Hawai'i Prep on the Big Island as a seventh-grader. She graduated with honors in 2006.
"She was an exemplary student and swimmer," Kanekuni said, "incredibly hard-working, enthusiastic about learning and very humble and courteous."
Hawai'i Prep is spread across two campuses in the Big Island town of Waimea. It has 590 students enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade and 350 in high school.
Simpson was captain of the robotics team, captain of the swim team and also played water polo, Kanekuni said. She holds school records in 50- and 100-meter swimming events and medaled at the state swim championships.
She also founded the school's chess club as a freshman and was inducted into Hawai'i Prep's Cum Laude academic society in her junior year, Kanekuni said.
'I LOVE CRAZY IDEAS'
Last year, Simpson was one of 31 Hawai'i student-athletes to win an Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation scholarship. The students had to have a minimum 3.3 grade-point average and demonstrate a need for financial aid.
On her personal Web site at MIT, she says she is studying computers and enjoys tinkering in a student-run machine shop.
"In a sentence, I'm an inventor, artist, engineer, and student, I love to build things and I love crazy ideas," the Web site says. [snip]
She also founded the school's chess club as a freshman and was inducted into Hawai'i Prep's Cum Laude academic society in her junior year, Kanekuni said.
At this point, I'm voting for "brilliant but clueless" rather than "rabid leftist making a stupid political statement." It may not have occurred to her that this circuit board artwork might look like a bomb to an airport guard.
It's disturbing how many posters on this board are completely certain what to make of every new event, regardless of whether any actual facts are available.
This is precisely the sort of knee-jerk response we rightly criticize on the other side.