Chemistry teacher accidentally sets high schooler on fire

Anna Poole, a 10th-grade teacher at New York City's Beacon School, experienced what may now be every chemistry teacher's worst fear: She literally set one of her students on fire.

The New York Post reports that Poole "improperly poured explosive methanol" onto a burning experiment, leaving 16-year-old Alonzo Yanes "looking like a victim from a battlefield," a new report from the Education Department's Special Commissioner of Investigation reveals.

To make matters worse, Poole didn't have a fire extinguisher or fire blanket in the classroom, leaving Yanes in unassisted pain until another teacher stepped in and provided Yanes with a fire blanket. The Post also reports that Poole did not make her students wear safety goggles or aprons in the classroom.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Poole allegedly yelled "Oh my god, I set a kid on fire!" during the incident. The accident occurred on January 2, but Yanes is still undergoing physical therapy for third-degree burns and has not yet returned to school, according to the new report, which was released last night.

"It's very clear from the report that they conducted an experiment that they had been warned by the government was dangerous," Jeffrey Bloom, Yanes' lawyer, told the Post. "As a result, a gifted, talented young man has scars, physical and mental, that are going to be with him forever."