Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 994 posts

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

#271

Post by piqufoh »

austenallred wrote: post #143

This hits way too close to home. Not because I have brown skin, or because I've ever been arrested for making "a bomb" that is not a bomb, but because when you're that age you're constantly surrounded and disciplined by people who don't understand you. Or what you're doing. Or why it's cool. I'd be willing to bet part of the reasoning around his arrest is, "Why would a student need to make his own clock?" I wish I co…

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

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

#272

Post by cholantesh »

eldude wrote: post #211
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…

Exactly. Exploiting his race to further a political narrative as the author has done, is both intellectually feeble and misdirects away from the real issue: authoritarian government behavior targeted at school children.

Well, given that the police implied heavily that his religious background makes him a candidate for making a bomb...

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

#273

Post by zaphar »

xacaxulu wrote: post #202
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…

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

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

#274

Post by hellbanner »

sp332 wrote: post #100
martincmartin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

Stupidity does not adequately explain why they are considering bringing charges of a "hoax bomb", or sent this letter home with the other students: http://www.irvingisd.net/cms/lib010/TX01917973/Centricity/Do... [PDF] Therefore, malice.

If the kids have any intelligence at all they're only going to grow up hating the bureaucracy.

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

#275

Post by ajross »

exodust wrote: post #261

Sounds like he was asking for it. Notice in the video he says "he used a simple cable to lock it so it wouldn't look like a threat". People are forgetting that there's nothing impressive about a "clock in a case". He called it an "invention". Sorry kid, you're 14, not 8. Nothing inventive about sticking a digital clock in a case. His own engineering teacher suggested he not show it to other teachers. So what does he…

I can't see anywhere in that diatribe where he was asking to be arrested. The outrage is at the reaction here, not the kids level of martyrdom. We still aren't supposed to arrest 14 year old jerks with PCBs.

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

#276

Post by Gigablah »

powertower wrote: post #249

There is likely more to this story. I'm basing this on 3 facts: 1. In 2015 it's highly unlikely that you could build a home-made clock that would be of the size and shape resembling a bomb - that is, unless it was made to look like a bomb. 2. Ahmed, his father, and anyone else with a phone camera (that is on Ahmed's side) would have posted a picture of the clock, or given a full description of it (size, shape, etc),…

At 1:13 in this interview, Ahmed shows a product page for the case that he put his clock in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mW4w0Y1OXE

It's a "Vaultz Tiger Pencil Box". Here's a video review of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e40YqLF1Rs

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

#277

Post by lallysingh »

xacaxulu wrote: post #202
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…

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

The nice thing about private school is that the student and parents are customers.

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

#278

Post by WiseWeasel »

x5n1 wrote: post #140
t2015_08_25 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How difficult was it to not suspect it anymore? Excellent observation. It's really about people conditioned to follow scripts. These people were missing the "de-escalation script" in which a teacher laughs, puts their hand on their forehead and says, "Wow, That scared the shit out of me for a minute there. Now let's show you how to make a tidy wooden box for your amazing clock project."

Well I guess they could logically suspect that he might be doing something more sinister than just bringing around a clock project. So fine get a court order to search his house while keeping him detained at school. Find nothing. Apologize and let him go.

When did DIY electronics become actionable evidence of terrorism?

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

#279

Post by nailer »

benevol wrote: post #207
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 find it striking that you almost never hear about such behavior occurring in Europe (correct me if I'm wrong). Any ideas why things seem to be very different there?

There was an athlete doing hill runs with a weight vest in the UK: the neighbours called the anti-terrorism squad.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-15190563

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

#280

Post by triangleman »

ryanlol wrote: post #118
martincmartin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

Hanlon's razor is a pretty stupid quote here, there definitely is no need to distinguish stupidity from malice here. The people responsible for this mess should probably lose their jobs. (Based on the story as it was presented here)

Yes but should the be fired on account of malice or stupidity? (Both valid causes for firing)
Post reply on HN