Why in the world would a school close because of a simple thermometer???

RUSH: Let me ask you a question. When you were in junior high or high school, in science class, did you ever break a thermometer to play with mercury to see what it would do once you got it out? Well, we did all the time. Mercury is heavy. We played with mercury all the time. In high school, we'd take a thermometer in and we'd break it. Yeah, we had thermometers. Ha-ha-ha. Yes, and we had mercury thermometers.

Yeah. You could watch the mercury go up and down according to whether or not you had a fever. It was silver. It was silver. The mercury was silver. Anyway from Florida here: "Seminole High School Locked Down After Student Brings Mercury-Filled Thermometer to Class for Chemistry Project -- A chemistry project caused a big problem at Pinellas' Seminole High School Tuesday morning.

"The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office says students were given an assignment to bring in a substance from the Periodic Table of Elements. One student brought in mercury -- contained within a thermometer -- and the school went into lockdown." Now, excuse me. Do not compact fluorescent light bulbs have mercury in them? And excuse me, but if one of those things breaks, do you not have to call hazmat to come clean it up?
You do.

The compact fluorescent has replaced the incandescent because it's destroying the planet. People that vote for Obama, and entrepreneurs in California, believe that crap, too. So a kid brings in a mercury thermometer, and they lock down the school, for crying out loud. "Deputies say the thermometer was discovered as the substances were checked before going through the school. No one was put in harm's way, but a hazmat crew was there as a precaution."

I do not believe this!
No wonder we're raising a nation of wusses!
We lock down a school because of mercury?
Maybe Bob Costas will give us a commentary during halftime of the football game Sunday night. For crying out loud, this is just unreal.

The article that Rush quotes from is not very clear. The headline of that article says the school was "locked down", but the article itself doesn't say that. I mean - why lock down the school? A hazmat team was called in - for mercury safely stored in glass, how ridiculous is that? but there was no mention of kids being locked into their school room before someone got a humongous set of pliers to carry the mercury-filled glass tube safely out of the school to be detonated safely.

Below is the entire text of the article:

Boca Ciega, Florida -- A chemistry project caused a big problem at Pinellas' Seminole High School Tuesday morning.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office says students were given an assignment to bring in a substance from the Periodic Table of Elements.
One student brought in mercury -- contained within a thermometer -- and the school went into lockdown.
Deputies say the thermometer was discovered as the substances were checked before going through the school.
No one was put in harm's way, but a hazmat crew was there as a precaution.
Pinellas County Schools tell 10 News the students were told not to bring certain toxic elements from the periodic table, mercury included.