SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Kiera's Story: From Science Project Arrest to White House Welcome
'We should be encouraging young scientists like Ahmed and Kiera, not criminalizing them because of race.'
Oct 20, 2015
Just two years ago, at age 16, Florida honors student Kiera Wilmot was expelled, arrested, and booked on two felony charges after a school science experiment went awry.
"She just wanted to see what happened to those chemicals in the bottle," one teen told a local news station in the wake of the incident in 2013. "Now, look what happened."
"A young African-American woman, an aspiring scientist, made an error in an experiment that landed her in handcuffs. This was drastic and harsh, the kind of discipline that Black girls and teens face every day due to a rush to criminalize them."
--Judith Browne Dianis, Advancement Project
On Monday night, Kiera joined "Clock Kid" Ahmed Mohamed and about 300 other youths for the White House Astronomy Night, which promotes careers in science and innovation. On Tuesday, Kiera, her mother Marie, and her sister Kayla were in the nation's capital to draw attention to how students of color are unfairly criminalized and pushed out of schools.
Civil rights advocates say stories like Kiera's and Ahmed's are not atypical.
But while their experiences have drawn widespread attention, "the plight of other students caught up in the school-to-prison pipeline often goes unnoticed and under-reported," according to the Washington, D.C.-headquartered Advancement Project, which promotes racial justice through legal and grassroots tactics. Citing statistics from the African American Policy Forum, the Advancement Project notes that "such is disproportionately the case with Black girls, who are suspended from school six times more often than their white counterparts around the nation."
"Kiera's experience is indicative of a larger school discipline crisis," said Advancement Project co-director Judith Browne Dianis at a press conference on Tuesday.
"While every child should have the opportunity to succeed, children of color are often punished unnecessarily," Dianis said. "A young African-American woman, an aspiring scientist, made an error in an experiment that landed her in handcuffs. This was drastic and harsh, the kind of discipline that Black girls and teens face every day due to a rush to criminalize them. Too often, the impact of the school-to-prison pipeline on girls of color is swept under the rug, but Kiera's story, like so many others, shows girls face life-changing consequences too."
As the Washington Post reported, President Barack Obama didn't mention Kiera or Ahmed by name in his remarks at Monday's event. "But he said adults need to be careful to nurture scientific creativity -- not snuff it out," noted Post reporter Emma Brown.
"We need teachers to light a spark of curiosity in young minds," Obama told the young scientists, along with their parents and teachers, on the South Lawn. We have to watch for, cultivate, and encourage glimmers of curiosity and possibility," he added, "and not suppress them, not squelch them—because not only are the young people's futures at stake, but our own is at stake."
Thena Robinson Mock, project director for the Advancement Project's Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track campaign, went further, saying: "We should be encouraging young scientists like Ahmed and Kiera, not criminalizing them because of race."
After all, while Kiera was able to graduate--once her mother spent thousands on legal fees--and is now working toward a mechanical engineering degree at Florida Polytechnic University, many young people arrested in schools have more traumatic outcomes, as they are less likely to graduate from high school, find good jobs, enroll in college, or enlist in the military.
"I applaud the White House for not only recognizing Ahmed's brilliance," Mock said, "but highlighting the plight of black girls through Kiera Wilmot."
Learn more about the Wilmot family and the school-to-prison pipeline in the short video below:
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
Just two years ago, at age 16, Florida honors student Kiera Wilmot was expelled, arrested, and booked on two felony charges after a school science experiment went awry.
"She just wanted to see what happened to those chemicals in the bottle," one teen told a local news station in the wake of the incident in 2013. "Now, look what happened."
"A young African-American woman, an aspiring scientist, made an error in an experiment that landed her in handcuffs. This was drastic and harsh, the kind of discipline that Black girls and teens face every day due to a rush to criminalize them."
--Judith Browne Dianis, Advancement Project
On Monday night, Kiera joined "Clock Kid" Ahmed Mohamed and about 300 other youths for the White House Astronomy Night, which promotes careers in science and innovation. On Tuesday, Kiera, her mother Marie, and her sister Kayla were in the nation's capital to draw attention to how students of color are unfairly criminalized and pushed out of schools.
Civil rights advocates say stories like Kiera's and Ahmed's are not atypical.
But while their experiences have drawn widespread attention, "the plight of other students caught up in the school-to-prison pipeline often goes unnoticed and under-reported," according to the Washington, D.C.-headquartered Advancement Project, which promotes racial justice through legal and grassroots tactics. Citing statistics from the African American Policy Forum, the Advancement Project notes that "such is disproportionately the case with Black girls, who are suspended from school six times more often than their white counterparts around the nation."
"Kiera's experience is indicative of a larger school discipline crisis," said Advancement Project co-director Judith Browne Dianis at a press conference on Tuesday.
"While every child should have the opportunity to succeed, children of color are often punished unnecessarily," Dianis said. "A young African-American woman, an aspiring scientist, made an error in an experiment that landed her in handcuffs. This was drastic and harsh, the kind of discipline that Black girls and teens face every day due to a rush to criminalize them. Too often, the impact of the school-to-prison pipeline on girls of color is swept under the rug, but Kiera's story, like so many others, shows girls face life-changing consequences too."
As the Washington Post reported, President Barack Obama didn't mention Kiera or Ahmed by name in his remarks at Monday's event. "But he said adults need to be careful to nurture scientific creativity -- not snuff it out," noted Post reporter Emma Brown.
"We need teachers to light a spark of curiosity in young minds," Obama told the young scientists, along with their parents and teachers, on the South Lawn. We have to watch for, cultivate, and encourage glimmers of curiosity and possibility," he added, "and not suppress them, not squelch them—because not only are the young people's futures at stake, but our own is at stake."
Thena Robinson Mock, project director for the Advancement Project's Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track campaign, went further, saying: "We should be encouraging young scientists like Ahmed and Kiera, not criminalizing them because of race."
After all, while Kiera was able to graduate--once her mother spent thousands on legal fees--and is now working toward a mechanical engineering degree at Florida Polytechnic University, many young people arrested in schools have more traumatic outcomes, as they are less likely to graduate from high school, find good jobs, enroll in college, or enlist in the military.
"I applaud the White House for not only recognizing Ahmed's brilliance," Mock said, "but highlighting the plight of black girls through Kiera Wilmot."
Learn more about the Wilmot family and the school-to-prison pipeline in the short video below:
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
Just two years ago, at age 16, Florida honors student Kiera Wilmot was expelled, arrested, and booked on two felony charges after a school science experiment went awry.
"She just wanted to see what happened to those chemicals in the bottle," one teen told a local news station in the wake of the incident in 2013. "Now, look what happened."
"A young African-American woman, an aspiring scientist, made an error in an experiment that landed her in handcuffs. This was drastic and harsh, the kind of discipline that Black girls and teens face every day due to a rush to criminalize them."
--Judith Browne Dianis, Advancement Project
On Monday night, Kiera joined "Clock Kid" Ahmed Mohamed and about 300 other youths for the White House Astronomy Night, which promotes careers in science and innovation. On Tuesday, Kiera, her mother Marie, and her sister Kayla were in the nation's capital to draw attention to how students of color are unfairly criminalized and pushed out of schools.
Civil rights advocates say stories like Kiera's and Ahmed's are not atypical.
But while their experiences have drawn widespread attention, "the plight of other students caught up in the school-to-prison pipeline often goes unnoticed and under-reported," according to the Washington, D.C.-headquartered Advancement Project, which promotes racial justice through legal and grassroots tactics. Citing statistics from the African American Policy Forum, the Advancement Project notes that "such is disproportionately the case with Black girls, who are suspended from school six times more often than their white counterparts around the nation."
"Kiera's experience is indicative of a larger school discipline crisis," said Advancement Project co-director Judith Browne Dianis at a press conference on Tuesday.
"While every child should have the opportunity to succeed, children of color are often punished unnecessarily," Dianis said. "A young African-American woman, an aspiring scientist, made an error in an experiment that landed her in handcuffs. This was drastic and harsh, the kind of discipline that Black girls and teens face every day due to a rush to criminalize them. Too often, the impact of the school-to-prison pipeline on girls of color is swept under the rug, but Kiera's story, like so many others, shows girls face life-changing consequences too."
As the Washington Post reported, President Barack Obama didn't mention Kiera or Ahmed by name in his remarks at Monday's event. "But he said adults need to be careful to nurture scientific creativity -- not snuff it out," noted Post reporter Emma Brown.
"We need teachers to light a spark of curiosity in young minds," Obama told the young scientists, along with their parents and teachers, on the South Lawn. We have to watch for, cultivate, and encourage glimmers of curiosity and possibility," he added, "and not suppress them, not squelch them—because not only are the young people's futures at stake, but our own is at stake."
Thena Robinson Mock, project director for the Advancement Project's Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track campaign, went further, saying: "We should be encouraging young scientists like Ahmed and Kiera, not criminalizing them because of race."
After all, while Kiera was able to graduate--once her mother spent thousands on legal fees--and is now working toward a mechanical engineering degree at Florida Polytechnic University, many young people arrested in schools have more traumatic outcomes, as they are less likely to graduate from high school, find good jobs, enroll in college, or enlist in the military.
"I applaud the White House for not only recognizing Ahmed's brilliance," Mock said, "but highlighting the plight of black girls through Kiera Wilmot."
Learn more about the Wilmot family and the school-to-prison pipeline in the short video below:
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.