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Subscribe to RSSTwo 18-year-old students are in custody after two chemical-filled bottles exploded at a Memphis high school.
Just before noon on Thursday, Craigmont High School was evacuated after two bottles filled with household cleaning products exploded on separate floors of the school. Police said a bomb threat had been called in to the school shortly before the explosion.
The teens were charged with aggravated assault, felony reckless endangerment and possession of a prohibited weapon. School officials say the blasts appear to be a prank.
Officials say an assistant principal with asthma was taken to the hospital in non-critical condition after inhaling smoke produced by the explosion.
Following the evacuation, students were sent to the football field while police and fire investigators cleared the scene. No students were injured and there was no damage to school property, the Jackson Sun reported.
The Associated Press reported.
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Jack ass kids. Making loud bomb as a prank is no laughing matter. Especially with all the past school shootings and horrible terror that has happened. I hope these kids get a stiff kick in the john brown by their folks and are grounded for a long while!
@Blake
I highly doubt that will ever happen. My fiancee is a SPED teacher in the school system here and these degenerates will likely just be moved to her school and assigned to her. As for parental involvement... in this city that notion these days is a joke.
They are 18 though so they won't get off easily. If they were 17 they would. Funny how our legal system words ain't it?
works**
Criminal/federal charges should (and better) come.
Keep giving "kids" free tickets and it'll get worse faster than not.
Accountability, people, without it a "responsible" society will fester/rot from within. We're already on that road now, nobody is accountable for $hit anymore.
Geoff: "aggravated assault, felony reckless endangerment and possession of a prohibited weapon" don't sound like a slap on the wrist. What do you want the law to do ? Life w/o parole ?? Somehow I don't think anyone could please you no matter how much blood was shed.
I don't know what gets into some kid's heads to do this. My wife freaked out since she teaches Ballet to two girls who go to the school, No one was hurt but with school about to go on break for the summer, these last two weeks are going to be hard for everyone there walking on eggshells. Its just scary that a real bomb could so easily been brought in killing scores of teachers and students.
scotsman, if they could get this whole county/city school system consolidation overwith and dwell on important issues, we could maybe prevent this crap. Ironicly Craigmont High School looks like a prison, just with less windows.
Nice... I just love to see my city in the national spotlight. Listen up everyone, this is a prime example of what my city has to offer since the middle to late 1980's. These delinquents and their like have made Memphis TN what it is today... a freaking cesspool of degenerate, illiterate, and ignorant criminals. This used to be a decent city...alas no more. :(
Now now, lets not go Memphis bashing. Its still a great city, just some bad seeds. its gotten better now that King Willie is gone. It will take time to clear up all he screwed up over the many years.
Probably ammonia and bleach- and the resulting explosion is anything but a prank. It will form chloramine gas and the resulting liquid is also very toxic- and may contain hydrazine. Inhaling chloramine causes irreversible damage to lungs and can easily kill. Hydrazine? Exposure can damage the liver, kidneys, and nervous system. I doubt these kids had any idea what they were doing. Stupid stuff- though I'm grateful they didn't have access to metallic rubidium.
There's a reason a lot of things are not available on the open market any more; when I was a kid, I could- and often did- buy some fairly dangerous things by mail order. I still have all my fingers- but then again, I was very careful. One of my projects was making solid rocket fuel from scratch- for use in pyrotechnics. You need to take it to just the right temperature- or it explodes. Then you need to pour it into molds and provide enough vibration to remove all bubbles- or it explodes when you fire the finished rocket. lessons learned- but I never would have dreamed of putting others in harm's way by bringing anything like that to school....
I am not sure, but I seem to remember storing some metal (sodium?) in kerosene in the lab due to the fact it reacts violently with water. As part of an experiment one day (supervised), we put a small piece in a beaker of water and it moved violently and there was a small explosion. There was shielding in place as the teacher knew what would happen.
However, mixing some chemicals can be extremely lethal. That includes kitchen chemicals. These "kids" obviously knew that and should be punished.
Hydrazine?? oH Yeah isn't that the stuff that NASA uses from rocket fuel and blows out their exhaust pipe by the millions of gallons .. hmmm
another science experiment gone wrong
Felony convictions will look good on their resumes when they get out of prison. They might have thought it would be a cool prank, but they're the ones who will HOPEFULLY suffer the consequences.
When I worked in TN, the best thing about Memphis was seeing it in my rearview mirror as I went East to Nashville.
They are going to learn the hard way that 18 = adult. They should have tried their childish prank a few months ago.
How about not doing it at all?
You take all the fun out of being 17 and 1/2 . . .
"No students were injured and there was no damage to school property"
If only they had used their genius for niceness, instead of naughtiness
Why no names or pictures of these two. They are over 18 and I'd like to know what they look like.
I think 3 felony charges is a little harsh for a senior prank. I'm not condoning their actions, and yes they used bad judgement. But come on, high school kids are not exactly known for having the best judgement. They were just pulling what they thought was a harmless prank (guess they weren't planning on someone having asthma!). No it wasn't ammonia and bleach as someone suggested (it was Drano). Yes they scared the crap out of a bunch of people, and I bet they thought it was pretty funny. No one was injured, as that was not their intent. The principal assistant with asthma was taken to the hospital as a precaution. I'm not saying there should be no consequences at all, but 3 felony charges is overkill. These boys shouldn't have a prank ruining the rest of their lives.
Wrong and wrong. Have most of us done stupid things? Probably. Did we ever get caught? Maybe. Did we know that getting caught involved a price? Yes.
What's up with free passes?! So everyone claims everything was for fun...a prank? 18 is an adult legally. Younger is realistically an adult except we continually treat EVERYONE in our society as unresponsible for almost anything that goes amis.
This free pass, this lack of accountability has got to change. Apparently only the "honest" people pay the price of mistakes and the people that cry "FOWL!" aren't held accountable. That's how it plays out in our society now and IT'S GOT TO STOP...(though likely won't).
They may be high school students but they're also both 18 years old which makes them adults in the eyes of the law and they should be treated as such, perhaps they'll learn to think before they act.
In this day and age, how can ANY 18 year old think that that would be considered a prank. Well, I'll answer my own question; dumber than dirt. And they should be prosecuted on all counts no matter how much their parents moan about what good kids they are. They aren't got kids.
I clearly stated that they shouldn't be given a free pass. I'm not saying that at all. Yes they are adults and should be held accountable. They should learn that their actions have consequences. But for a prank in which no one was injured, they never intended to injure anyone, and no property was even damaged, 3 felony charges IS overly harsh. i think incarcerating these 2 boys and turning them into jail hardened felons will do more harm to our society than good. Instead they should be given an APPROPRIATE punishment and given the opportunity to become productive citizens. But that is just my opinion, you can take it or leave it.
If you think that that's a prank, you are as brain-dead as they are.
Why are folks having all these kids they do not seem to want/can't provide for? Not even to mention teach them LOVE/KINDNESS/COMPASSION/SHARING/CARING......OH! There I go, dreaming again.
Pretty stupid.
I'm wondering why the MSN headline calls this a "prank". These guys set off 2 chemical bombs which could have had deadly consequences.
A prank is putting some fake dog poop on a teachers desk not setting off bombs.
That would not be considered any sort of prank here. Every official department would become involved and there would be an extensive investigation, especially at a school.
Maybe they do this sort of thing at MSN headquarters.
Ah the good ol days when we would flush Cherry Bombs down the toilet at school to see the commode explode with a gusher of sewer water.
Cherry bombs were so much fun.....haha
They are calling this a 'prank'? This is a criminal act with potential deadly consequences. Why would this not be treated as terrorism? If they did this at a Mall, sporting event, train station, etc. I am not so sure 'prank' would be the descriptive term. Something more devious than a prank was going on here.
I'll be passing out FREE crying towels at the door.
Chemistry is the criminal here... not these beloved children...
Why are Beavis and Butthead still in school?
So far no comment from the White House. Hmm. I wonder, maybe this is special situation. The agent was doing an emergency run to Wendy's for the Obama kids.
I don't know for certain what happened here, nor does anyone else commenting. All we can do is speculate. So was the lady jaywalking, was the driver using his cell phone, we don't know. What we do no because the agent was so adamant is the he was on the job. I'm not certain but I don't think that being "on the job" is a license to run over pedestrians weather they are jay walking or not. What about all of those special driving skills they are suppose to have? It's possible that the 3 pedestrians walked out from between two parked cars into traffic, and not one of them bothered to look. That I find a little difficult to believe. One person may be preoccupied and do something like that. But three of them at the same moment? I think we need to know a lot more about this.
It was nice to hear the heart felt sentiment from the agent though. Not how sorry he is. Not someone call 911, no "I'm on the job". Great. There's a guy with potential written all over him.