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

451–460 of 994 posts

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

#451

Post by nether »

jameshart wrote: post #371

A story. So, this thirteen year old kid with a Syrian father once got flagged up by Hewlett Packard because he was ordering electronic components. I'm sure you can imagine what happened next... Yeah, Bill Hewlett offered him a summer job, he got hooked on making stuff, wound up founding a company out of his garage with his buddy Steve Wozniak, and created the biggest electronics company in the world. Thank goodness h…

Biological father. His (adoptive) father was white, and Jobs didn't look middle eastern, the key part. There's a whole spectrum of skin tones within ethnicities that affects how you are treated in the US more than where your parents originate.

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

#453

Post by slayed0 »

exodust wrote: post #226
slayed0 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

"Ahmed, for his part, wanted to bring the clock to show an engineering teacher. Because it consisted of a board with a digital display and a tiger hologram on the front, the teacher recommended he hide it from the rest of the staff."

This statement implies there was a conversation with the teacher before bringing it in and that the teacher told him to bring it, but to not bring it out in other classes/in front of other teachers.

Your other points are not even worth replying to and border on trolling. You're upset that he didn't invent something new at 14? Building a homemade clock is too simple for his age and only 8 year olds should do it? This is one of the most insane posts I've ever seen on HN.

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

#454

Post by mikeash »

exodust wrote: post #317
ajross wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm sure it's always diatribe when you don't agree. "Asking for trouble" is what I mean. The default processes in the USA are not what I'm talking about, but everyone here is defending his "right to be creative". Nobody is saying "hang on, he put a clock in a case, brought it to school, not part of any school project, advised not to show it around, showed it around anyway and was passive aggro when asked about it". H…

It makes me sad that showing off something you made can be seen as "asking for trouble."

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

#455

Post by goldenkey »

dllthomas wrote: post #386
peejaybee wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost like attempting to traumatize the kid and his peers for no good reason and for what? That's pretty simple -- their "authority" depends on never, ever, admitting that they were wrong.

The response is pretty simple. If they can never, ever admit they were wrong, we need to deprive them of their "authority".

Who's the we? These administrators are put their by their buddies in city and state positions. They almost never are educators themselves. In order to get competent caring administrators, who know what education is about, we need reform that actually puts educators in the hotseats.

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

#456

Post by PretzelFisch »

twoodfin wrote: post #375
cschneid wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the teacher level, they are underpaid. My girlfriend is a high school teacher w/ 4 years experience, a masters degree in her topic, and works 12+ hours a day (not kidding, seriously all day). She makes $35k / year. If she wasn't lucky enough to have an engineer paycheck behind her life, she simply wouldn't be able to do the job. It's likely that funding gets allocated in stupid ways, but the whole process is inher…

At the teacher level, they are underpaid. My girlfriend is a high school teacher w/ 4 years experience, a masters degree in her topic, and works 12+ hours a day (not kidding, seriously all day). She makes $35k / year. How much do teachers in her school system who have 25 years experience make? The union-mandated tenure system, which prevents young, talented teachers from making even vaguely competitive salaries, but…

If you put more money into the system, you could be pretty sure that the teachers would not see more than a dime of it. Tenure is what prevents schools from removing a higher cost experienced teacher and replacing them with a cheaper no experienced teachers.

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

#457

Post by cholantesh »

nsxwolf wrote: post #448
eldude wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the non-specific 2nd-hand quote from the officer that makes up the entirety of the justification for the race baiting and exploitative behavior? "Yup. That’s who I thought it was." Like I said, it's an intellectually feeble argument.

That either meant "Yup. The kid that's always building electronics", or "Yup, the Muslim." When in doubt, always assume the worst.

What part of his appearance gives the former away?

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

#458

Post by [deleted] »

nsxwolf wrote: post #448
eldude wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the non-specific 2nd-hand quote from the officer that makes up the entirety of the justification for the race baiting and exploitative behavior? "Yup. That’s who I thought it was." Like I said, it's an intellectually feeble argument.

That either meant "Yup. The kid that's always building electronics", or "Yup, the Muslim." When in doubt, always assume the worst.

[deleted]

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

#459

Post by kjdal2001 »

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.

Clock ownership and general interest in technology are neither suspicious nor unusual behaviors.
Post reply on HN