Crushing science fair dreams: One student at a time
17 Jan
From the AP:
SAN DIEGO – Fire officials said a San Diego middle school was evacuated when a student’s science project was mistaken for a bomb. Fire-Rescue spokesman Maurice Luque said a vice principal’s concerns prompted the evacuation of Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School Friday afternoon. Luque said an arson team took photos and x-rays of the empty plastic bottle with wires and determined it was harmless.
Luque says the 11-year-old boy was trying to build a motion detector from instructions he found on the Internet and parts he bought online with help from his father. His parents did not realize that the object looked threatening.
He said the student was “a genius-type kid” who undertook the project on his own, had no intentions of hurting anyone or causing any disruptions.
Schools geared towards technology should not hold science fairs. Photo by ivan avramov
I did a little extra reading and found that the poor kid’s backpack was scoped out with a robot, A ROBOT.
Holy freakin mother of gawd…
Wait. It gets better.
They searched the boy’s garage, found nothing out of the ordinary, and then determined that the boy and his family should seek counseling.
YES. BECAUSE AFTER PARTICIPATING IN A SCHOOL SCIENCE PROJECT, THE BOY HAS CLEARLY LEARNED THAT OUTSIDE OF GROWING CRYSTALS FROM SALT, IT’S COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE TO HAVE INGENUITY AND CREATIVITY.
(Not knocking growing crystals, that’s what Bebe chose for her project and let me tell ya’ll they look fanfreakintabulous!)
Way to boost the spirits and encourage children to be independent thinkers Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School.
Wait… Millennial Tech?? You mean a school that’s mission is to “cultivate their (students) technology skills to enhance their motivation and curiosity”?
What does the Tech stand for again?
(Technically not having a clue about science fairs or innovation? )
Is anyone else seeing the irony in this? A Vice Principal, at a TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL, called the cops on a kid with a science project…
Digest that for a minute.
Outside of the child supposedly violating school policy (never mentions which ones and I’ve searched the school’s website; nothing there either), there has to be protocol for a science project. You would THINK (scary thought… but go with me) that a school that is known for it’s technology and even has a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program THAT YOU HAVE TO APPLY TO would have some guidelines for a science fair. One of them being that the school, or at the very least, the science teacher has to approve the project and the student has to submit their plan, their hypothesis, a statement… SOMETHING that explains what they’re going to experiment on, build, or grow.
I get that we are hyper-sensitive to threats of terror, students who snap and shoot up schools, but for the love of Pete, can we use some common sense?
I get it.
Believe me, I’m a mom, I’ve got 4 mess makers running around. I love them and want them to be safe at school too…
But calling the cops on a science project?
What kind of anxiety-ridden, neurotic, fear monger do you have to be?
I think that incidents like this just fuel the homeschool movement. (I’m not bashing homeschoolers. Stay with me). I mean if our own school administrators are putting the fear of God and police into young children, then where else are we supposed to give them an education that will allow them to be creative, free thinkers?
The kid in this story? He was making a motion detector out of an empty Gatorade bottle and electrical components.
He used creative thinking skills, research and an eco-friendly design to make something totally useful and marketable! HOW FREAKIN COOL IS THAT? If it were my kid, I’d be all like “Duuude, did you see what Johnny built? I don’t ever have to buy a motion detector for the garage again!”
But no. The kid is embarrassed, probably hates science now, and wants to crawl under a rock. Or worse.
The only kind of counseling I think this kid and his parents need (I can’t figure out why the parents need counseling, except to recover from being humiliated by the school system and police), is a good therapist who will restore this kids’ spirit and encourage him to continue to explore science.
I’m appalled, stunned and I feel horribly sorry for these parents and the boy. The parents have a long road ahead of them in restoring this kid’s confidence and his belief in himself as well as keeping him motivated and excited about school and science (that is if the school hasn’t totally shredded it).
I hope they don’t pay a tuition for this hack of a technology school. I’d be asking for every penny of this year’s tuition back.
By the way… I totally think the boy should get first place for his project.
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Wow. Ok, so I can see a little concern at first, but cause major hysterics by conducting an evacuation, calling in the police, etc? Why not just quietly take the child aside as ask him what his project is?
And after they find out it’s a motion detector they tell the family to get counseling???? For what? To make sure Johny wasn’t planning to use his motion detector to sense when his dad got home and then blow up the garage? I mean, seriously?!?!
Kudos to the kid for such a great project! I too think he should have won first place!!
Erica Mueller´s last blog ..Recap of the Week
Ah, those “genius-type” kids. Always good to scare them and their parents plum out of the school system. I bet he won’t even return when they try to give him the key to the city 30 years from now, after he fixed the ozone layer.
Kate@And Then I Was a Mom´s last blog ..Stanley Tucci, a giveaway winner, and a cheeky snowman walk into a bar.