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Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

bbc.com

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Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#11

Post by jonlucc »

jaxomlotus wrote: post #9

Sorry, that seems opportunistic. I felt bad for him, but no way he was scarred to the tune of $15 million. Even the bad experience had a major upside - he was offered an internship to Twitter and an invitation to the White House. Schools are budget-deprived enough without adding frivolous lawsuits to the mix. In this case everyone involved in suspending him should have been seriously reprimanded and an apology given…

I think this is how you get schools to care and avoid doing the same in the future.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#12

Post by oxide »

gamesbrainiac wrote: post #7

This move really undermines the overwhelming good will that people had towards Ahmed.

I couldn't disagree more. Schools & cities both ought to live in fear of lawsuits to stop this kind of nonsense from occuring as a kneejerk reaction and give common sense an opportunity to prevail.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#15

Post by KevinEldon »

AdeptusAquinas wrote: post #6

Seems like an effective way to teach the state not to be so racist/reactionary. Assuming he wins. Of course the lawyers will no doubt take most of it.

Or effective bait for activists to troll public institutions for publicity and cash settlements. Settlements paid by tax payers that take funds from education, public safety, infrastructure, and other public insitutions.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#16

Post by striking »

oxide wrote: post #12
gamesbrainiac wrote: post #7

This move really undermines the overwhelming good will that people had towards Ahmed.

I couldn't disagree more. Schools & cities both ought to live in fear of lawsuits to stop this kind of nonsense from occuring as a kneejerk reaction and give common sense an opportunity to prevail.

Well, it allows certain opportunistic individuals to claim he's just in it for the money (and it does look rather bad, although I'm certainly not that reactionary). It comes as a charge to taxpayers, as well.

Also, I find the phrase "live in fear" to be a little... strong. Is that really what you meant?

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#17

Post by addisonj »

Regardless of what you think about all the actors at play here, this is one of those stories to look back on that says... something... about the internet. A few million tweets led to media attention, discourse about schools and race, meetings with presidents and scholarships to prestigious universities. All good things and all was once again well in the world and the internet won.

However, with time, more details come out that make the whole thing not quite as clear cut and it becomes pretty obvious that there might be more than to one side of the story that we all jumped into.

I don't pass any judgement, it just makes me wonder how to bring balance to the social media firestorms and convey a more nuanced perspective to stories like this.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#18

Post by HarryHirsch »

mtimjones wrote: post #14

I encourage everyone to dig into this story a bit more. This family acted in a provocative way, and now they to attempt to punish the school and taxpayers.

Just to remind you: the great Civil Rights era cases were all plants, and care was taken by the organizers to find a presentable defendant with a clean record. Lady Chatterley was a plant, too.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#19

Post by hannibalhorn »

addisonj wrote: post #17

Regardless of what you think about all the actors at play here, this is one of those stories to look back on that says... something... about the internet. A few million tweets led to media attention, discourse about schools and race, meetings with presidents and scholarships to prestigious universities. All good things and all was once again well in the world and the internet won. However, with time, more details com…

I wasn't sure what you were talking about, with respect to the other side of the story, but after searching ran across this article:

http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engin...

Not sure how I missed it, but if anyone else did as well, it really looks like he just moved the guts of an old clock into a new casing. He didn't really design any circuitry at all.

Re: Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school

#20

Post by toomuchtodo »

jonlucc wrote: post #11
jaxomlotus wrote: post #9

Sorry, that seems opportunistic. I felt bad for him, but no way he was scarred to the tune of $15 million. Even the bad experience had a major upside - he was offered an internship to Twitter and an invitation to the White House. Schools are budget-deprived enough without adding frivolous lawsuits to the mix. In this case everyone involved in suspending him should have been seriously reprimanded and an apology given…

I think this is how you get schools to care and avoid doing the same in the future.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punitive_damages

> Punitive damages or exemplary damages are damages intended to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit. Although the purpose of punitive damages is not to compensate the plaintiff, the plaintiff will receive all or some portion of the punitive damage award.

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