A Tale of Two Sentences

On April 30th, a Miami high school junior "mixed some common household chemicals in a small 8 oz water bottle on the grounds of Bartow High School in Bartow, Florida. The reaction caused a small explosion that caused the top to pop up and produced some smoke. No one was hurt and no damage was caused," but she was expelled and will be "charged with possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device. She will be tried as an adult" despite being just 16 and not intending to hurt anyone.

I think this is unfair. She was just trying to do a science experiment and used materials that created a relatively small reaction that just "caused the top to pop up and produced some smoke," and certainly wasn't trying to harm anyone. She wasn't trying to "discharge a destructive device" against her classmates but will be charged with felony "as an adult" for up to 20 years in prison and sent to a juvenile assessment center. Although the charges were later revoked, the fact that she was given such a harsh punishment for a science experiment seems to be an overreaction.

This reminds of of when on March 17th, a 16 and 17 year old Ohio high schoolers were sentenced at least one and two years, respectively, in jail for sexually assaulting an underclassman at a party and spreading evidence of the rape to their friends. Immediately after his sentence, one of the boys broke down and sobbed that his, "life was over" and apologized profusely to the family, saying that he "had not intended to do anything like" raping their daughter because they were drunk. However, Judge Thomas Lipps refused to budge, reminds the defendants that "these are serious offenses. If they were convicted in an adult court of these charges, they would be spending many years in prison" like the Miami girl could have spent. Why weren't these boys tried in an adult court like the Miami girl? I think that the crime of molesting an underclassmen is far more severe than doing a science experiment.

 Both Ohio and Miami have the death penalty according to this image.

Ohio has used the death penalty just five times in the past two years, while Florida has used it twenty-eight times. Maybe this means that Florida gives overall harsher sentences. But I can't find any statistics for murders in Ohio and Florida in 2012-2013. Florida may be a state with more crime than Ohio, leading to harsher sentences.

However, the Miami teenager DID conduct the experiment without a teacher's permission. And the school's conduct code states that "student in possession of a bomb (or) explosive device... while at a school (or) a school-sponsored activity... unless the material or device is being used as part of a legitimate school-related activity or science project conducted under the supervision of an instructor," which she lacked. The experiment was independent and done in the school yard at 7 in the morning. The girl should have asked her teachers for permission to conduct the experiment in a safer environment with their supervision. And if she didn't want the experiment to be supervised, then she should have just kept the chemicals at home and done the experiment on her own time without fear of violating the code of conduct. Even though the school principal acknowledges the harmless nature of the experiment, District spokesperson Leah Lauderdale urges parents to remind their kids that "there are consequences to their actions" and that the girl's violation of the code of conduct is "immediate grounds for expulsion" and the district must follow the code of conduct. It would be unfair to other students if one girl was exempt from being reprimanded for creating an unauthorized, explosive reaction on school grounds that could have harmed people because she didn't mean to hurt anyone. Just because she didn't mean to hurt anyone doesn't mean that people were safe from the reaction.

Maybe the sentence was done for shock value to remind the community needed to understand that rules need to be followed, no matter how harmless the offense is, seeing as her sentence has been lifted and she is back at school. I am still frustrated by the Ohio rape case, though. The boys were minors, but their crime actually hurt someone and they get one and two year sentences. As part of their punishment, they are being placed on the sex offender registry. Maybe this compensates for their brief sentence. What do you think?