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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

#461

Post by bosdev »

owen_griffiths wrote: post #324
piqufoh wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. To quote the Police spokesman; "He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation" and "The concern was, what was this thing built for?" Why shouldn't he make his own clock?! Why does there need to be a 'broader explanation'? How can one develop an interest in anything if you must first provide an adequate explanation? sigh

And those guys learning to fly the planes without the landing, why can't that just be an interest! With terrorism, if you want to avoid false negatives, you are going to have a lot of false positives. NB I totally agree it would be a douche move to charge this kid with some BS, but investigating unusual behavior is much more understandable.

It seems pretty logical to me that we would treat people who want to learn to fly without landing differently than a teenager who builds a clock.

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

#462

Post by tmsam »

zaphar wrote: post #273
xacaxulu wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More evidence that school serves to simply stultify the youth. Unschooling is looking more attractive all the time.

In my day we called unschooling homeschooling. And it's a lot of work. It's a fix for those families that can afford to do it. However the families most harmed by public school policies are precisely the people who can't afford to unschool or homeschool which is perhaps the saddest part of all of this. [edit]: spelling

I would like to point out that homeschooling and unschooling are not the same thing. From:

http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/homeschooling/unschooli...

"Unschooling is a branch of homeschooling that promotes nonstructured, child-led learning. There’s no set curriculum or schedule."

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

#463

Post by rm445 »

austenallred wrote: post #366
Avenger42 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I recommend using this opportunity to talk with your child about the Student Code of Conduct and specifically not bringing items to school that are prohibited ." As a parent, can I see the list of "items... that are prohibited"? I'd be pretty shocked if "clock" is actually on there.

That's the crazy part to me. They still seem to think and act as if it was a bomb.

Remember the Boston Lite-Brite thing? (A more legit incident, since apparently quite a few people were spooked by the devices, but still a case where the authorities over-reacted and refused to back down).

Sticking to the line that something was a 'bomb hoax' keeps the responsibility with the accused: they shouldn't have perpetrated a bomb hoax; not we shouldn't have over-reacted to an innocuous object.

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

#465

Post by goldenkey »

jcromartie wrote: post #218
samsnelling wrote: post #161

QOTD from dallas news article: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dall... "He’s vowed never to take an invention to school again.” what a place of learning!

That's always the lesson from these sorts of things: don't try, don't explore, or possibly don't trust people in authority to know anything.

Remember to get a hall pass!

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

#466

Post by aianus »

Someone1234 wrote: post #201
mikehollinger wrote: post #114

It's remarkable the difference that ~20 years can make. In middle school, someone's science fair project was building an actual briefcase bomb (with clay). It had a variety of sensors, and laid out (on a tri-fold poster board, of course) the guts of how each one worked.

Even 20 years ago that is still unusual. And even pre-9/11 I'm still not sure what the legal status of that is. Since it was designed to be a "bomb," even if it is inert, several laws do cover that. Essentially as soon as you describe a pile of distinct legal parts as a "bomb" you've now got a class of controlled weapon even if it has no explosive components.

> Essentially as soon as you describe a pile of distinct legal parts as a "bomb" you've now got a class of controlled weapon even if it has no explosive components.

Source? If I describe a chicken finger as a gun, is that also a controlled weapon?

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

#467

Post by jimktrains2 »

TillE wrote: post #221
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.

But, between you and a buddy or two, that's still a lot of precursor. It's not like they've actually solved any problems; they've just made the 3oz toiletries industry boom.

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

#468

Post by jkestner »

marcinx27 wrote: post #47
austenallred wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair it's a middle school, and most people don't really know what a circuit board is for. I don't think it's outrageous that they asked . It should have never, however, escalated as far as it did. You're going to handcuff a kid who is cooperating and trying to explain what this thing he built is? Give me a break. But worse still they're still not backing down. It's suspension of all logic and reasoning. They sh…

Nah, it's a high school. And the reaction really wasn't warranted. He did show it to his engineering teacher before he got nabbed, too. According to the Times, "When Ahmed Mohamed, 14, brought the clock to MacArthur High School in Irving, Tex., on Monday, an engineering teacher suggested that he not show the invention to other teachers. But it beeped during an English class, prompting Ahmed to show his English teache…

I wonder, did any of the staff actually know the kid? They're acting like he wandered in, and not like any of them could attest to his character.

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

#469

Post by goldenkey »

geggam wrote: post #400
leni536 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL, I guess it's simply a mandatory protocol for arresting somebody. US police apparently handcuff every people they arrest[1]. [1] https://www.quora.com/Why-do-American-police-always-handcuff...

Its for their safety so you cant fight back when they are beating / tasing / shooting you.

The handcuffs are actually helpful so they can't claim you punched yourself.
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