Intent is kind of a weak distinction, though I get you are imagining the minds of the prosecutors. The boy aims the gun at another and has no intent of at least making it sting a bit? They were playing around, yea he didn't mean to kill anyone, but he definitely meant to shoot him with it. He says he didn't think there was a BB in it, but come on, how do they repeatedly fire the gun and then all of a sudden a BB magically appears in it? They were shooting BBs at each other, just like most boys do at some point, to make it sting. Boys do that. On the other hand, the girl was conducting a science experiment to see what would happen and no one else was around. There was less intent to harm in her case than with the BB gun. But neither case warrants prosecution, of course.
Furthermore, it's ridiculous that anyone can think that NaOH and Al mixed with water in an 8 oz plastic water bottle could possibly result in an explosion that would come close to hurting anyone. First of all, a plastic water bottle could not possibly hold enough pressure to allow the hydrogen to reach flash point, but even if she had somehow ignited the hydrogen it would not have created a big enough explosion to hurt anyone (8 oz is not enough room to create a sufficient quantity of hydrogen). The "explosion" was the bottle popping under the pressure. It's no different than mixing Alka-Seltzer and soda, or baking soda and vinegar, in a plastic bottle and watching as the pressure "explodes" the bottle.
Apparently we should be jailing kids the world over for their scientific curiosity, particularly the dark ones.
And to GPs, seriously there is no need to "inject" race into the debate. We are not beyond race, by God I wish we were. Look at incarceration rates...if you think the colour of skin somehow genetically makes people more predisposed to crime, then you ARE the problem. There is no way to intelligently deny the prevalence and impact of racism, and the only people that try are those who wish to maintain their privilege in society. See GPs for examples.
I'm more talking to GPs than you, as you are clearly highlighting the absurdity of our litigious society rather than defending any of it.