Government officials are required to act as stupid as possible because rigidity prevents corruption. This rigidity leads to insane results, such as laying a felony charge on a 16-year-old girl for performing a science experiment. As front-line soldiers in the fight against competence and intelligence, school officials did what they do best: panic, overreact, and expel the girl because school officials must be slaves to their own moronic rules.
If the State knew about the science experiments I did as a 16-year-old in chemistry class… (Hints: one involved thermite; another was a demonstration of the combination of ammonia and hydrochloric acid)