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from the the-scientists-of-tomorrow-are-thwarted dept.
According to a petition at change.org
At first glance, Greg Schiller looks like a mad scientist taken straight out of a Hollywood film. His infamous moustache has more fans and followers than the dodgers on a good day. He coaches fencing and occasionally appears in school talent shows. Heck! Mr. Schiller is in fact anything but ordinary. He is teacher, role model and friend.
He is also suspended from teaching, coaching, and acting as union rep for his school.
Schiller was ordered to report daily to a district administrative office pending an investigation after two students turned in science-fair projects that were designed to shoot small projectiles.
One project used compressed air to propel a small object but it was not connected to a source of air pressure, so it could not have been fired. (In 2012, President Obama tried out a more powerful air-pressure device at a White House Science Fair that could launch a marshmallow 175 feet.)
Another project used the power from an AA battery to charge a tube surrounded by a coil. When the ninth-grader proposed it, Schiller told him to be more scientific, to construct and test different coils and to draw graphs and conduct additional analysis, said his parents, who also are Los Angeles teachers.
A school employee saw the air-pressure project and raised concerns about what looked to her like a weapon, according to the teachers union and supporters.
Shooting objects through tubes has a long tradition, and the idea of moving things with coils has been around a long time (I dimly recall articles about coast-to-coast coil trains from old mouldy Popular Science mags).
If you support freedom of scientific thought in our schools you might want to stop by change.org and sign the petition.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by tynin on Friday April 11 2014, @03:56PM
This is such a sore topic for me. See, I was on the fencing team, and for a little while in the drama club. For both, their were times when I'd bring in any number of melee weapons; epee, gladius, claymore, etc (my grandfather was a collector of such things and gave them to me). They'd get used as set pieces in a play, or to talk about historical significance (the history teacher ran the fencing club).
Then, one day, one of the administrators noticed me carry a sword from my car, heading to drop it off for a play. Out of the blue the police are called, show up, and proceed to arrest me. Zero tolerance policies apparently went in effect. It didn't matter that this was a normal thing. It didn't matter that several school teachers backed up my story. I was given a felony charge for having a weapon on school grounds. During my trial they tried to say how heinous a crime I had committed, and THANK GOD someone was their to stop me before I could do serious damage. I was removed from school and sent to a correctional facility for youths for 1 school year. I got to experience hardcore racism first hand being the only white kid their, and to boot, the tallest person, so I stood out like a sore thumb. Their was no learning at this facility. They paid lip service to it, pretended to have classes, but more than 1/2 of the day every day was spend in a Rec room full of arcade games, table hockey, and basketball. Talking to others in the facility with me, and they were there for rapes, grand theft auto, burglary, etc. And here I am, this giant Nordic white dude, who's crime was being on the fencing team on the wrong day.
Sorry for the rant, but even now, 15 years later, that point in my life fills me with rage.
(Score: 1) by Woods on Friday April 11 2014, @08:09PM
You should not apologize for being upset, what they did was wrong and idiotic. I am sorry that happened to you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 12 2014, @01:43PM
I cannot fathom what kind of a monster is responsible for this outcome. I bet they have a special place in hell for such people.