So...reckless behavior at school with potentially very dangerous consequences should only be punished if someone is actually seriously injured?

Punishment for causing a disturbance, (and nothing more)? Suspend her from school. But to arrest her? JFC.

I didn't defend the arrest--that's up to the police.

Did you actually read the article?

http://www.theledger.com/article/201...NEWS/304235005

So, what is it that you're defending?

My original argument was meant to highlight that I'm annoyed by her getting arrested, not expelled. This happened on school grounds and the school has the authority to make that decision. But the police arresting her for what happened? Insane.

I have now. Doesn't change anything. Still hard to tell if an arrest was warrented, but that's up to the cops. Trying to detonate something on school grounds might be an automatic arrest. Anyway, the school definetely needs to take action or else it allows every kid to "experiment" at school with various chemicals to see what they can blow up. You can't seriously be ok with that.

I'm defending the school's actions. I don't know if an arrest was warranted, but intentionally causing an explosion at a school probably is automatically gounds for arrest under the local law. Whether it should be prosecuted--I don't feel I have enough info to have an opinion, but my gut feeling is no.

You can't seriously be ok with a zero tolerance policy, and yet you are. And, according to the article, the girl claims that she thought it would lead to smoke, not an explosion, so you either still haven't read the article or you're choosing to ignore that part of it.

I hate big science.

The only way this makes any sense is if this was not part of a class project.
Then they likely have issues with her using any chemicals, unsupervised, on school property.

genuine enthusiasm and curiosity for learning from a bright student with a promising future = GTFO.

if she'd been sharing inspirational quotes on facebook like the rest of her moronic counterparts she'd still be a model pupil, sad.

Sure, let's make something blow up at 7 am, before classes start. Who knows what it was? Like I've said I'm sure some kid has ****ed up making pop bottle meth in Iowa before. If it was simply explosives, is that really any better? It's just a suspension for a couple days to me, but it doesn't feel right that the girl is a complete victim.

Hell. Hell, hell is for children

Absolutely ridiculous...

This looks like a fun thread to play a game in. Guess which poster is a very little pasty white guy that got picked on in school and hates his tiny penis so much he smacks his ballsack repeatedly to punish himself for it, is.