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14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

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Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#221

Post by TillE »

makecheck wrote: post #154

Of course the reaction to this is completely insane but what's even sillier is that they're continuing to assume that real threats would be things that they can see. If someone wanted to blow up a building they could hide a bomb in a backpack among hundreds of others and never show it to anyone. It's the same crap they pull at the airport where you must throw out your bottled water; and then their solution is to toss…

To be completely fair about the stupid liquid rule, it was prompted by fears about someone making TATP on the flight. The precursors are not particularly dangerous on their own.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#222

Post by dale-cooper »

userbinator wrote: post #21

Apparently the authorities have determined that the best way to stop terrorism is to discourage any manifestation of personal intelligence, so that the population turns into mindless sheep. "If you don't know how to make a clock, you won't know how to make a time bomb" is their reasoning. It is seriously disturbing. I am reminded of stories of kids opening a command prompt and being accussed of "hacking", only this i…

> I am reminded of stories of kids opening a command prompt and being accussed of "hacking", only this is a far more extreme case.

I remember a teacher seeing me type "BitchX" into a terminal and freaking out, he apparently thought I was doing something obscene in my terminal window..

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#223

Post by HarryHirsch »

rasz_pl wrote: post #133
snarfy wrote: post #20

This really needs to end in a civil lawsuit.

In fairness it was probably staged by the father to end in civil lawsuit. "His father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, came from Sudan and is famous for arguing against anti-Islamic policies"

It wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Rosa Parks was staged to go to suit, as was Lady Chatterley.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#224

Post by Zigurd »

circuiter wrote: post #119
ceejayoz wrote: post #11

> Children are encouraged “specifically [to] not bring items to school that are prohibited.” What, clocks? Or the NASA t-shirt he was wearing? ( https://i.imgur.com/PMgDR7m.jpg )

The cop's expression suggests he's not happy with what's happening to the kid.

Perhaps he is more unhappy about being photographed.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#226

Post by exodust »

slayed0 wrote: post #131
ausjke wrote: post #105

I have kids at school and I'm actually for the responses from the teachers, yes it's overacting and could be dealt with _much_ better, but being overly alert on this is better than ignorant. and it's better to show it at his house instead of at school for things like this I feel.

"things like this" Please clarify. Things that are relevant to what you are studying in school and have been approved by your teacher for you to bring into class? For someone who is speaking out against ignorance, this statement sure comes across as... ignorant.

Where did you get the idea it was "approved"?

Let's look at the facts...

1. His own engineering teacher "suggested that he not show the invention to other teachers." He should have listened, but...

2. During his English class the case made beeping noises. Not smart bringing it to English.

3. When questioned, he didn't explain what it was all about, and was described as playing "passive aggressive".

4. He calls it an "invention", but a digital clock in a case is not an invention. He's 14 years old, not 8. There's nothing inventive about it.

5. Admitted in the video he chose a "simple cable" to lock the case so it "wouldn't look threatening". So let's be clear, he did think about the possibility of it looking threatening, and his own teacher warned him about it.

Are the pieces coming together for you?

if he's smart, which apparently he is, then he should move on from clocks in cases to something that approaches an actual invention.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#227

Post by interpol_p »

kedean wrote: post #104
oldfatslow wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar thing happened when my son started kindergarten. His "signature" was in red marker that smelled like cherry, took up half the page and kind of looked like an alligator to me.

What exactly does that accomplish? It's not like it's a binding contract, it's a child.

Maybe they're trying to be cute? Toddlers love imitating their parents and doing "grown up" things.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#228

Post by ejk314 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #11

> Children are encouraged “specifically [to] not bring items to school that are prohibited.” What, clocks? Or the NASA t-shirt he was wearing? ( https://i.imgur.com/PMgDR7m.jpg )

He looks so confused in that picture. Even after they handcuffed him, he can't believe they're being that stupid.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#229

Post by monroepe »

witty_username wrote: post #63

> The newspaper quoted a police spokesman, James McLellan, as saying that Ahmed never claimed his device was anything but a clock, and the police have no reason to think it was dangerous. But officers still did not believe Ahmed was giving them the whole story. “We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb,” Mr. McLellan said. “He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation. “It coul…

>“He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation."

Did it really need a broader explanation? It's a clock.

Re: 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

#230

Post by HarryHirsch »

t2015_08_25 wrote: post #160
nadams wrote: post #121

If anyone is actually surprised by the administrations intelligence - I should remind you of 3 events: - A teacher confiscates Linux CDs claiming that the student was essentially distributing illegal copyrighted software - because no software is free [1] - A system administrator was fired for installing/running seti@home on school computers. There is a lot of controversy about this case - but I read one news article…

Great list. How about teacher Julie Amero, whose browser was apparently hijacked, possibly while students used it while she was out of the room resulting in students seeing nudity briefly and uninentionally [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_v._Amero

Wikipedia says she pled guilty to disorderly conduct and handed in her teaching license because the school board wouldn't pay for IT support that would have kept the naked ladies off her computer. Incredible.
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