"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."
What possible sane school policies could exist at the "Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School" that the student could have violated? Don't do anything with what we're teaching you outside of school?
I suppose there might be a rule of "don't bring in anything unless you get it screened first", but ... geez. Given the level of screening they considered necessary for this device, that doesn't sound likely.
I'm really glad I went to school in the 1970s; heck, for my 2nd year in JROTC teaching unit (my senior year in high school), where we went beyond writting a lesson plan to actually teaching a lesson (in anything we wanted, didn't have to military related), I used a page from the Ranger Handbook to show how to build an improvised booby-trap, with a bottle rocket as the thing which went "boom" (mounted in a 2x4 block of wood; much better than a firecracker, makes a lot of noise building up to the boom without as high a single impulse).
The instructor was concerned for a moment until he remembered who was giving the lesson ^_^. If someone tried that today they'd probably end up in jail (then again, I suspect my home school district isn't this insane).
I was thinking the same thing (though more 80s than 70s for me). I was very interested in chemistry from 7th grade and up, and did a lot of home experiments including some more or less flammable stuff. This was at least in part encouraged by both my chemistry teacher and my parents and grandparents. Had this been today and in the US and the police had gone through my garage, it seems likely I would be in jail.
This stuff is extremely troubling to me. This hysterical overreaction will, as many have already pointed out, serve to completely discourage kids from nurturing their interest in science, and it makes me really, really hesitant about the prospect of raising kids in the US.
> What possible sane school policies could exist at the "Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School" that the student could have violated? Don't do anything with what we're teaching you outside of school?
> I suppose there might be a rule of "don't bring in anything unless you get it screened first", but ... geez. Given the level of screening they considered necessary for this device, that doesn't sound likely.
What possible sane school policies could exist at the "Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School" that the student could have violated? Don't do anything with what we're teaching you outside of school?
I suppose there might be a rule of "don't bring in anything unless you get it screened first", but ... geez. Given the level of screening they considered necessary for this device, that doesn't sound likely.
I'm really glad I went to school in the 1970s; heck, for my 2nd year in JROTC teaching unit (my senior year in high school), where we went beyond writting a lesson plan to actually teaching a lesson (in anything we wanted, didn't have to military related), I used a page from the Ranger Handbook to show how to build an improvised booby-trap, with a bottle rocket as the thing which went "boom" (mounted in a 2x4 block of wood; much better than a firecracker, makes a lot of noise building up to the boom without as high a single impulse).
The instructor was concerned for a moment until he remembered who was giving the lesson ^_^. If someone tried that today they'd probably end up in jail (then again, I suspect my home school district isn't this insane).