Some good news for a change.
Kiera Wilmot, who I've written about twice now, has had the charges against her dismissed.
Kiera Wilmot, the Polk County girl who caused a small explosion on her high school campus by mixing household products, will not face criminal charges, the State Attorney's Office said this afternoon.
She will likely still have some probation. She may still be expelled from her school (she's served a 10 day suspension and is now enrolled in an "alternate" school.) Her lawyer is still working on that although Dan Satterfield
last week reported that she may get to return to school next year.
A number of funds have popped up on the internet to help pay her legal bills and perhaps send her to college.
This project (found via this site) is the one set up by the family. I'd hit up THIS one over the next one.
Here's one at Crowd Fund It and here's another scholarship fund for both her and her twin sister. Both funds will disburse directly to the Wilmot family.
Every African-American person in the US seems to have that one event whether personal or not that confirms, for them, that they inhabit a United States far different than everyone elses United States. This was mine. I suppose it's a testament to societal improvements, as inadequate as they may be, that it took me to age 32 to finally experience that moment. I don't know if this was Kiera's. However the outpouring for her from nobodies like myself to prominent scientists and more has been both surprising (for me) and en-heartening. A bright young mind won't have her life ruined by a science experiment accident, an overzealous and unthinking zero-tolerance system, and what I (and not I alone, by any means) perceive as subconscious racism.
Kiera Wilmot's not the only bright young mind (of any color, but especially minority) who's made a mistake, but it looks like things will be on the up for her. Hundreds of thousands of others won't get this, and that is something that needs to be talked about and fixed.