Student Arrested For Science Experiment Won't Face Charges After All

Kiera Wilmot, a 16-year-old Florida high school student who was arrested last month for what was essentially a failed science experiment, won't face criminal charges. Wilmot, whose case drew national media attention and an angry response, was originally charged with two felonies — possession or discharge of a weapon on school property, and discharging a destructive device — after she mixed household chemicals on school grounds, causing a small explosion. But she's not off the hook entirely: Wilmot, who by all accounts was a model student, could still face expulsion. 

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At Bartow High School in Polk County, Wilmot apparently earned good grades, had no discipline problems ( "She has never been in trouble before, ever," principal Ron Pritchard said), and was well-liked by students and administrators. So it's not that surprising that the State Attorney's Office was able to find way to avoid criminalizing her after others began to pay attention to her case (for instance: one Change.org petition asking prosecutors to drop the charges gained nearly 200,000 signatures). Prosecutors eventually offered Wilmont something called "an offer of diversion of prosecution," which will allow her to avoid a criminal record by serving community service, or meeting other, undisclosed conditions, according to the Orlando Sentinel. As they explain, Wilmont is still fighting to avoid expulsion and return to Bartow High next year. Right now, she's taking classes at an alternative school to finish out the year. 

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Nationally, Wilmot's case quickly took on deep meaning for a multitude of reasons. For some, Wilmot's arrest represented a racial bias in the criminal prosecution of teenagers — the prosecutor who, according to the police report, originally recommended to police that Wilmot be charged with felonies, as an adult, had just days before declined to prosecute a white, 13-year-old boy in the county who accidentally shot and killed his brother with a BB gun. For others, the case represented a dangerous trend of criminalizing curious, bright students when they make mistakes. And many noted that Wilmot was just one of many students arrested in Florida under the state's strict zero-tolerance policy, which, some argue, has replaced detention with arrest for relatively minor infractions.  

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In any case, Wilmot's school district previously stood by their decision to expel the student as the story blew up in the news cycle. Now that she's no longer facing charges, the district has released a non-committal statement indicating that they'll at least consider letting Wilmot avoid expulsion: "The Polk County School District will take the State Attorney's decision into consideration in determining what, if any, further disciplinary action is appropriate."

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Photo: by Alexander Raths via Shutterstock. 

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Police: No crime in Colorado student mouth taping

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Police say no crime occurred when a second-grade Colorado teacher taped her students' mouth shut when they wouldn't be quiet.

Police interviewed the teacher at Fulton Academy in the suburb of Aurora after a student told her mother who then reported Thursday's incident to police. The student confirmed to police the teacher's statement to an officer that it was a joke, the children were laughing, and had asked that their mouths be taped.

In her statement to police, the teacher said she didn't "think anything bad" about placing tape a small, vertical strip of transparent tape on all 28 students' mouths.

"The incident did not meet the elements of any municipal violation or state statute," Aurora police said in a statement.

The unidentified teacher is on paid administrative leave while the Aurora Public Schools district investigates.

"My daughter's been in the house crying, begging me not to send her back to school. (She) said that she'll do good in home school and she promises. She doesn't want to go back to a public school," Tenisha Bynes told KUSA-TV (http://tinyurl.com/ctqu2za ).

The girl said the punishment was painful.

"When she put it on, it was like, OK, and then, like, it started to hurt my mouth right here. It's also hard for me to breathe with the tape, too," she said. The girl's name is being withheld because of her age.

The teacher did not return a phone call to the station seeking comment. The teacher's name was redacted in a police report because no charges have been recommended.

The school is under the jurisdiction of Aurora Public Schools with limited responsibility for making its own decisions.

The school district issued a statement saying it's taking the matter seriously and will conduct its own investigation.

"Due to privacy laws, we are unable to discuss these allegations specifically. When we receive allegations of this nature, we immediately contact the police, begin our own investigation and possibly place the staff member on administrative leave during the investigation. We do not condone any inappropriate adult conduct toward students, and we cooperate fully with the police," said spokeswoman Paula Hans in an email statement.

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Information from: KUSA-TV, http://www.9news.com

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Information from: KUSA-TV, http://www.9news.com

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Government may sell 40 billion pound student loan book - report

LONDON (Reuters) - The government is considering whether to sell its 40 billion pound student loan book as part of a series of privatisations that includes selling off the Royal Mail Group, the Sunday Times newspaper said.

The government is testing the market with the sale of a 900 million pound tranche of loans, which was announced by Business Secretary Vince Cable on March 26. The newspaper said that the government was now looking at wholesale privatisation.

It said that the sale of the loan book may not raise a significant sum but would slash public debt by removing the loans from the government's balance sheet.

The Student Loans Company, which lends out about 5.5 billion pounds a year, had 28 billion pounds of loans outstanding at the end of March 2012. Senior civil servants say a hike in tuition fees could drive up the total to 40 billion pounds, the newspaper said.

The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, which oversees the Student Loans Company, declined to comment.

(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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Official: Arrested student entered US without visa

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of three college students arrested Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombings case was allowed to return to the United States from Kazakhstan in January despite not having a valid student visa, a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

Authorities charged the student — a friend and classmate of one of the men accused of setting off the deadly explosions — with helping after the attacks to remove a laptop and backpack from the bombing suspect's dormitory room before the FBI searched it.

The government acknowledged that U.S. Customs and Border Protection was unaware that the student was no longer in school when he was let back into the United States.

The disclosure was another instance of possible lapses by the federal government in the months before the Boston bombings. The Obama administration earlier this week announced an internal review of how U.S. intelligence agencies shared sensitive information and whether the government could have disrupted the attack. Republicans in Congress have promised oversight hearings starting next week.

Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested three college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a bombing suspect, including Azamat Tazhayakov, a friend and classmate of Tsarnaev's at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Tazhayakov left the U.S. in December and returned Jan. 20. But in early January, his student-visa status was terminated because he was academically dismissed from the university, the official told the AP.

The law enforcement official said information about Tazhayakov's status was in the Homeland Security Department's Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, called SEVIS, when Tazhayakov arrived in New York in January.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss details of Tazhayakov's immigration history.

DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard said when Tazhayakov arrived on Jan. 20, Customs and Border Protection officials had not been notified that he was no longer a student.

"DHS has recently reformed the student visa system to ensure that CBP is provided with real time updates on all relevant student visa information," Boogaard said. "At the time of re-entry there was no derogatory information that suggested this individual posed a national security or public safety threat."

Tazhayakov and another student from Kazakhstan, Dias Kadyrbayev, were detained last month on immigration charges. They were arrested on federal criminal charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Robel Phillipos, 19, was also arrested and charged with willfully making materially false statements to federal law enforcement officials during a terrorism investigation.

Questions about Tazhayakov's immigration status came up Wednesday during an immigration hearing in Boston when a judge questioned how he was able to return to the U.S. in January. A lawyer for Tazhayakov said he had re-enrolled in the university with a different major after returning to the country.

International students who aren't enrolled or are dismissed from a college or university generally have 30 days to rectify their status and re-enroll as long as they are already in the United States.

Lawmakers have questioned information sharing among U.S. law enforcement before the bombings. In 2011, Russian officials notified the FBI and CIA that they were concerned about now-deceased bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. In early 2012 Homeland security was alerted of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's travel to and from Russia — information that was shared with Boston's joint terrorism task force. But the FBI investigation into him had closed and therefore he didn't warrant additional scrutiny, officials have said.

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Associated Press writer Mark Pratt in Boston contributed to this report.

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Student arrested in Texas college stabbing attack

CYPRESS, Texas (AP) — A student went on a building-to-building stabbing attack at a Texas community college Tuesday, wounding at least 14 people — many in the face and neck — before being subdued and arrested, authorities and witnesses said.

The attack about 11:20 a.m. on the Lone Star Community College System's campus in Cypress sent at least 12 people to hospitals, while several others refused treatment at the scene, according to Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Robert Rasa. Two people remained in critical condition Tuesday evening at Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute, spokeswoman Alex Rodriguez said.

Diante Cotton, 20, said he was sitting in a cafeteria with some friends when a girl clutching her neck walked in, yelling, "He's stabbing people! He's stabbing people!"

Cotton said he could not see the girl's injuries, but when he and his friends went outside, they saw a half-dozen people with injuries to their faces and necks being loaded into ambulances and medical helicopters.

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said it was not immediately clear what type of weapon was used, but there were indications when calls came in to the department that "students or faculty were actively responding to work to subdue this individual."

"So we're proud of those folks, but we're glad no one else is injured any more severely than they are," Garcia said.

Michelle Alvarez told the Houston Chronicle she saw the attacker running toward other students and tried to back away. She said she didn't even feel it as he swiped at her.

"He came running and swinging at my neck, as I tried to get out of the way," she said.

Student Michael Chalfan said he was walking to class when he saw a group of police officers also running after the suspect. He said one officer used a stun gun to help subdue the man.

Lone Star officials initially urged people on campus, about 25 miles northwest of downtown Houston, to take shelter and be on alert for a second suspect. But the sheriff's department said authorities believe just one person was responsible.

"It was the same suspect going from building to building," department spokesman Thomas Gilliland said.

Garcia said buildings still were being searched hours later, and authorities would not provide more details about the suspect including his name. Long lines of vehicles carrying students and staff streamed off campus as law enforcement directed traffic away from the school.

Teaundrae Perryman said he was in class when he received a text message from a friend and went outside to see a young woman being loaded into an ambulance with what appeared to be stab wounds to either her neck or head. He said he didn't receive an email alert from the college until 11:56 a.m.

"I was concerned but I wasn't afraid because I was with a large group of people," the 21-year-old said, later adding, "The police got to the scene very quickly."

One student said she learned one of her classmates was stabbed after leaving the school's Health Science Center building.

"I called to check on another classmate who was still inside the building and she said the classroom was on lockdown and she said one of the classmates had been stabbed," said Margo Shimfarr-Evans told KHOU-TV. "It happened in the hallway."

Courtland Sedlachek, 18, was in class when his phone started buzzing along with the phones of everyone else in class. The room was temporarily locked down, but students were let out and off campus a short time later, in what Sedlachek described as an orderly evacuation.

The attack came three months after a different Lone Star campus was the site of a shooting in which two people were hurt. The suspected gunman in that incident is charged with aggravated assault.

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Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Terry Wallace and David Warren in Dallas contributed to this report.

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