A Pentucket Regional High School science class got an unpleasant surprise yesterday when one student's iPod exploded on her desk. But don't worry! Nobody was hurt, and there's a perfectly good explanation.

While Apple has gotten in trouble in the past for spontaneous iPod Touch combustion, Newburyport Daily News Online commenter "jos" offered some valuable insight into this particularly incident:

The iPod did not just explode. It was broken so a kid took the entire thing apart and was rubbing wires against the battery, which became very hot, then exploded. This is not a faulty product that caused a danger to people. This was bored kids, in a classroom with a substitute all week, who found a dangerous way to entertain themselves.

So let me get this straight: either your iPod's a deadly time bomb just waiting to go boom at a moment's notice, or kids do dumb things when they're bored?

I feel so much safer already. [Newburyport Daily News via Cult of Mac]