"Hey y'all, watch this!"
CLEMSON, S.C. - Dry-ice explosions on Clemson University's campus last week were mistaken for gunshots, resulting in a campus-wide alert and charges against two graduate students. But a professor said Tuesday the two were doing a legitimate chemistry experiment complete with safety gear.
"This was blown out of proportion by people who didn't know what gunshots sound like," said material sciences professor Gary Lickfield.
Michael James Seeber and Kyrylo Chernyshuk were charged this week with disturbing school, a misdemeanor. Both are 22-year-old engineering students studying material sciences.
The students put dry ice into one-liter bottles Oct. 14, creating explosions and loud bangs, police said. Witnesses reported gunshots, and the university warned people to stay inside.
Mr. Lickfield said Tuesday the students were conducting their experiment outdoors as a precaution. He said the noise was more like a popping bag than a gunshot.
Mr. Seeber and Mr. Chernyshuk are hoping to have the charges dropped or to get into a program that would erase the charges from their records in exchange for community service, Mr. Lickfield said
Comments
"Hey y'all, watch this!"
clemson personnel.. are ridiculous!!!
Wouldn't it make since to notify the Public Safety personnel BEFORE you start an experiment of this kind? I think the professor should be charged as well.
Can you spell blown out of proportion. People are to afraid to turn on the light, but yet they curse the darkness. Wake up people!!!!
We work hard to send out kids tp college then arrest them for an experiment under the supervision of a professor. I am missing something here.
The same thing was done on "mythbusters" a few weeks ago.
I know what gunshots sound like, but I'll be damned if I know how dry ice sounds when it explodes. Ka-Splash?
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