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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

#51

Post by TeMPOraL »

hannibalhorn wrote: post #19
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.

Yeah well, fuck it. I'm officially done with controversies on the Internet. I thought I was done already, but I fell for that one. Hell, I was even considering participating in "build a clock in support of that boy" Hackaday action (job stood in the way).

That's why I keep complaining about manipulative and lying media. It really fucks up our society.

Thanks for posting the link. It's really good.

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

#52

Post by swang »

lingben wrote: post #36
mcphage wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This family acted in a provocative way Lucky for them, then, that the school and police were as racist as his family expected, and they walked right into his trap.

This had nothing to do with race. Children have gotten into serious trouble just for drawing guns (see links below). This is a result of "zero tolerance" policies which have been in place for a while now. This child repeatedly brought out a clearly provocative object which he didn't even make and which looked like a count down timer in a small container. He also ignored e very single teacher who politely asked him to…

Neither of your examples were the kids ever arrested.

So they suspect he has a bomb, but don't evacuate the school? If someone calls into a school and says there is a bomb, they evacuate regardless of whether its a hoax or not.

Also you misquote what Mark Cuban said, just like a lot of news sites that want to focus the narrative that his sister "fed" him answers.

"I talked to the kid," Cuban said. "He's from Dallas, and I've talked to the people in the school district. The kid is a super smart kid. Science geek. We talked about science, but while I'm talking to him on the phone, as I ask him a question, 'Tell me what happened because I'm curious.' Right? His sister, over his shoulder, you could hear, listening to the question, giving him the answer. So, I don't know all the details of what happened, but what I do know, when I talked to him about science, when I talked to him about magnets, when I talked to him about creating things, he was very, very engaged."

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

#53

Post by smileysteve »

fleitz wrote: post #39
serge2k wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Schools are budget-deprived enough without adding frivolous lawsuits to the mix. I'm sorry, in what way is this frivolous?

In that getting called into the office for your homemade 'clock' is not a big deal, and certainly not a $15m big deal.

If by 'called into the office' you mean handcuffed, told that you are being expelled, and catching the news cycle. Not to mention being the topic of a national debate with some pointing out your race and guessing as to whether or not you are a terrorist.

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

#54

Post by TeMPOraL »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #34

This thread makes me want to stop coming to HN.

Why is it so?

This thread is one of the reasons why I come to HN. It turns out that yet another important story of this year was utter fabrication and lies. I wouldn't know about it if not for HN, and would keep believing falsehoods.

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

#55

Post by kelukelugames »

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.

Living in fear might be too strong. There needs to be a monetary deterrent discourage abuse. For example, the Internet often claims police brutality will drop if the settlements were paid from their pension.

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

#56

Post by TeMPOraL »

swang wrote: post #52
lingben wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This had nothing to do with race. Children have gotten into serious trouble just for drawing guns (see links below). This is a result of "zero tolerance" policies which have been in place for a while now. This child repeatedly brought out a clearly provocative object which he didn't even make and which looked like a count down timer in a small container. He also ignored e very single teacher who politely asked him to…

Neither of your examples were the kids ever arrested. So they suspect he has a bomb, but don't evacuate the school? If someone calls into a school and says there is a bomb, they evacuate regardless of whether its a hoax or not. Also you misquote what Mark Cuban said, just like a lot of news sites that want to focus the narrative that his sister "fed" him answers. "I talked to the kid," Cuban said. "He's from Dallas,…

They didn't suspect he had an actual bomb. They suspected he's making a bomb hoax. It's important to teach kids not to make bomb hoaxes.

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

#57

Post by zem »

unethical_ban wrote: post #47
mcphage wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with time, more details come out that make the whole thing not quite as clear cut What details came out that made it less clear cut?

There are multiple comments in this thread that describe it. * He didn't really make a clock * His dad is an Islamic activist likely staging this whole thing for money and attention * His family intends to move to Qatar in order to be in a "more accepting" place * The kid was interviewed saying something about "soldering CPUs" or some crap. This isn't a 5 year old. He has no idea what he's talking about. TL;DR he's k…

none of which forced the school or the cops to march a kid out of the premises in handcuffs.

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

#58

Post by jaxomlotus »

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.

Should schools really not take security seriously though? Do we really want people second guessing themselves when it comes to safety? That precedent is asking for trouble.

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

#59

Post by jaxomlotus »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #34

This thread makes me want to stop coming to HN.

Can you elaborate on why? Do you not feel this lawsuit is excessive and a slap in the face to the enormous amounts of good-will Ahmed and his family generated in the first place?

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

#60

Post by lewisl9029 »

I'm seeing a lot of comments on how this was all orchestrated or how he didn't actually make the clock.

Even if any of that were true, I'm not sure why it should change anything at all. The issue from the very beginning was the school's reaction to the clock.

If any of them really did get fooled into thinking it was a bomb, then they definitely wouldn't have handled it the way it did (handling the bomb themselves instead of evacuating and calling in professionals). This was simply a display of power by the school officials and police, and an attempt to make an example out of a kid that was somewhat disobedient.

If they acted reasonably, this whole ordeal would have ended there and there would have been nothing to further orchestrate by the kid's parents. They didn't. And now they're paying the price and being made an example of themselves. The irony is delicious.

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