Teacher Allegedly Gave Bomb-Making Lesson

[Kadie]

Teacher Allegedly Gave Bomb-Making Lesson

Wednesday, February 16, 2005


(02-16) 09:26 PST Orlando, Fla. (AP) --


A high school chemistry teacher was arrested after students claimed he taught his class how to make a bomb, authorities said.


David Pieski, 42, used an overhead projector in class to give instructions in making explosives to students at Freedom High School, including advising them to use an electric detonator to stay clear from the blast, an Orange County sheriff's arrest report said.


In Pieski's classroom in Orlando, authorities found a book labeled "Demo," which includes the chemical breakdown for a powerful explosive, the arrest report said.


One student said he set off an explosive device at a golf course on Jan. 6 and videotaped it, an arrest warrant said. The videotape shows an explosion, and the voice of a young man can be heard shouting, authorities said.

more...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/02/16/national/a091519S13.DTL

[leftofcool]

1. Oh man...... this is not good

Sheesh! As a former/retired school teacher, I really hate to see this type of thing going on. I would like to hear the teacher's side of the story.

Left of Cool

[brainshrub]

2. Sounds like he was trying to make the class more interesting.

I want to know what the teachers side of the story is.

[HereSince1628]

3. This will not end well for the teacher.

No matter what the pedogical intent, the instructor is going to get destroyed by the community.

Another candidate story for www.iwreckedmylifeinathoughtlessmoment.com

[Ian David]

6. We used to blow stuff up in summer camp chemistry class all the time

Every year, the instructor would do something silly like start diagramming atoms on the chalk board, or explaining the Periodic Table, and that lasted for twenty minutes.

The someone would say, "When do we get to blow stuff up?"

And try as they might to channel our interests to other things, the counselor would spend the next eight weeks blowing stuff up.

Once we accidentally set the building on fire, but it was small enough that nobody noticed.

Never pour gasoline (or as he called it, "petrol") on a fire. Especially in a barn-type building where flaming gasoline can drip through the floorboards.

And at the end of the summer, every jar in the lab was still full, except the potassium nitrate.

But then again, we never talked about timers and electric detonators.

Oh, and the sulfur for the stink bombs went pretty fast, too.

And we ruined a lot of test tube burning sugar with hydrochloric acid.

Actually, we burned a lot of things with hydrochloric acid.

In fact, we simply burned a lot of things in general.

[diamond14]

9. my high school chemistry class was full of cool EXPLOSIONS

that's how my High School Chemistry teacher kept it interesting....we watched LOTS of stuff BLOW UP....all kinds of flammable/combustible/explosives and the usual Sodium reaction with water (which some kids flushed down the toilet just as the water was near the end of the flush, resulting in a giant RUPTURE of the pipe, and a real mess).....we also did a LOT of fun things in the big Chemistry sinks...color changes, small explosions, etc....

it was actually in High School PHYSICS that we learned about 'FORCE' and learned to detonate stuff with timers, NOT in Chemistry....we had to learn to calculate FORCE from explosions, which include even the normal EXPLOSION that occurs in the PISTONS of your car, and pushed the piston UP after the IGNITION of flammable liquid (BTW, a car is very INEFFICIENT machine...we calculated that EXPLOSION, and then also for the ROTARY engines like the Mazda).....

[slackmaster]

17. Hasn't everyone made hydrogen gas "bark" in chemistry class?

Explostions ARE cool and interesting.

[Monkie]

18. there is a thread about iran being 6 months from atomic bomb knowledge

i was going to post something about highschool chemistry class and how it would take 15 minutes to get the teacher to explain the basics so why would it take the iranians 6 months to get hold of the knowledge.
but decided i didnt want to give homeland security a spastic fit.
i can picture the panic as it dawns on them that everyone that passed highschool chemistry is a potential nuclear terrorist and more are being trained every day!
and then you lot come along and post this!

"Every year, the instructor would do something silly like start diagramming atoms on the chalk board, or explaining the Periodic Table, and that lasted for twenty minutes.

The someone would say, "When do we get to blow stuff up?""

arggg

[ChemEng]

19. Oh man...this brings back memories...

Such fun. I guess it also explains why guys tend to have a lower life expectancy!

[seriousstan]

4. STOP calling these "McGyver bombs" bombs.

I am so tired of news reports acting as if every idiot who puts 2 reactive substances found in your kitchen together and pops a Pepsi bottle is a demolition expert. They are taking a simple science demonstration (DEMO) and building into another 9/11.


There used to be a very cool physics demo book published for teachers that cataloged many of these explosive experiments. It even rated them by stating the size area you needed to perform them. I believe they ranged from desktop to football field.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. We did this when I was in school.

Many years ago. It was a normal part of the class. I don't recall anyone freaking out about it back then. I'm pretty sure kids were blasting things in their spare time then, also. This was before McGyver. :P

[Ian David]

8. If bombs are outlawed, only outlaws will have bombs

Especially outlaws who never won a fair election.

[MAlibdem]

7. My chemistry teacher put sodium in water...

which is explosive. it exploded. it was cool.

[alarimer]

13. mine used to do things like that

What I remember most is that he would hook up a hose to the gas in the lab (what usually supplies Bunsen burners) with a glass funnel on the end. He would dip the funnel in dish soap, turn on the gas to make a bubble, which he then sent a lit match through, causing it to explode! It was cool! Obviously it made me remember that class.

[mainer]

10. Actually, he's my kind of chemistry teacher!

If only I'd had such an interesting practical demonstration of rate of reaction when I was in high school!

[NorthernSpy]

11. educationally, we're fast turning into a nation of pantywaists

Let's see... the fundies don't want kids to learn much biology, because all that evolution stuff might turn 'em off gawd. Rifle team is passe, since target shooting involves (gasp!) guns. History and social studies classes are a weird combination of jingoistic propaganda and fluffy "tolerance" training -- formulated merely to go down easy with most people, rather than to provoke thought. Good and interesting works of literature are routinely found to be too difficult, too disturbing, or too immoral for students to read.

And now, it seems, chemistry is scary, and liable to turn good, decent children into world-class terrorists. :eyes:

Really -- an explosive reaction is not a "bomb" unless it's actually used (or intended to by its creator to be used) as a bomb. But how many people will appreciate that point?

[newblewtoo]

12. So sad...

Can you still buy a real chemistry set? I bet all the "good stuff" is gone. Separating hydrogen and oxygen was fun, if you let air in when you put a burning splint in the hydrogen you could make a neat pop!

[iamjoy]

14. John Kerry Was There

Freedom High School is the one John Kerry visited. It was October 2, I believe.

Just an interesting bit of trivia.

[NYC]

15. Physics class, c. 1963.

Our teacher blew things up. For the biggest explosion, we were shut outside the room, looking through wire reinforced glass. He blew off his eyebrows and some of his hair.

It was an interesting physics class.

[slackmaster]

16. So glad I took metal shop class in the summer of 1971

Our wonderful teacher demonstrated the danger of acetylene by filling a 16-ounce paper drink cup with a 50/50 mixture of the explosive gas with oxygen, and igniting it.

Ka-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Our ears rang, and nobody was injured while working with the welding equipment all summer.

If a teacher did that now the BATFE would probably haul him off in chains.

:nuke: