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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

#61

Post by escherize »

lewisl9029 wrote: post #60

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 ins…

Except they're not the ones paying the price. Anyone who pays taxes is instead. There doesn't appear to be any accountability for this massive mishandling of events. I think the next group of people who should get rights (along with moral agency, and all the other hard parts of freedom) should be children.

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

#62

Post by dllthomas »

jaxomlotus wrote: post #58
jonlucc wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How does safety enter into it? Everyone knew it wasn't a bomb. Some people thought it was pretending to be a bomb, other people contend that it wasn't pretending to be a bomb. How are you worried about people second guessing themselves, in that context?

Schools have procedures for when there's a suspected bomb. They don't look like what was done, here. There was never a suspected bomb - only a suspected hoax.

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

#63

Post by lewisl9029 »

escherize wrote: post #61
lewisl9029 wrote: post #60

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 ins…

Except they're not the ones paying the price. Anyone who pays taxes is instead. There doesn't appear to be any accountability for this massive mishandling of events. I think the next group of people who should get rights (along with moral agency, and all the other hard parts of freedom) should be children.

True enough. Society is collectively paying the price, instead of the individuals actually responsible. That is unfortunate, but I am still cautiously optimistic that this could lead to people in positions of power to think twice before abusing it.

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

#65

Post by gjkood »

I see plenty of comments saying that the parents orchestrated this. If you truly believe this, I can only assume that you are not now or never have been a parent.

If you truly believe that a parent could send their child into a situation where there is a high probability of a fatal or long term negative outcome for the child, then you do not know what being a parent is.

There are plenty of bad parents, but believing this is orchestrated by the parents is the height of cynicism.

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

#66

Post by swang »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #56
swang wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How do you charge someone with a "bomb hoax" unless someone initially assumed there was an actual threat of a bomb? Can you just somehow jump straight to "bomb hoax"?

Why do you need to call the police for a bomb threat you know to not be real? If I said something stupid like, "I have a bomb" and the teacher _knows_ I'm lying. The teacher probably sends me to the principal's office or maybe gives me a stern lecture about "misusing words"

If he really did something that warranted cops being called why would the Principal need to threaten him with expulsion if he didn't sign a written statement coping to that fact? You either have him dead to rights on making bomb scares or you don't.

I honestly don't know if his dad was the cause of him bringing that clock to school. But man if that's true, the dad must have read the school well enough to know they would try to arrest his son on something dumb.

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

#67

Post by swang »

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 am really confused by the negative reactions because it seems like Ahmed's family is following the American Way by suing for $15 million.

But seriously, isn't this how it always has been with incidents like this? If they want to sue they don't want to sue for $2 million because the school will probably tryo to settle for ~$500K. If you set it at $15 million, it anchors the price point higher and they may get $3 million to make it go away.

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

#68

Post by dredwerker »

gjkood wrote: post #65

I see plenty of comments saying that the parents orchestrated this. If you truly believe this, I can only assume that you are not now or never have been a parent. If you truly believe that a parent could send their child into a situation where there is a high probability of a fatal or long term negative outcome for the child, then you do not know what being a parent is. There are plenty of bad parents, but believing…

How about balloon boy? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon_boy_hoax I am a parent and I wouldn't do this but it doesn't mean others wouldn't.

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

#69

Post by Ollinson »

swang wrote: post #67
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 am really confused by the negative reactions because it seems like Ahmed's family is following the American Way by suing for $15 million. But seriously, isn't this how it always has been with incidents like this? If they want to sue they don't want to sue for $2 million because the school will probably tryo to settle for ~$500K. If you set it at $15 million, it anchors the price point higher and they may get $3 mil…

I think Ahmed and his family forfeit their right to the "American way" when they decided to move to Qatar after receiving an outpouring of support from the American public (including meeting Obama).

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

#70

Post by Ollinson »

fleitz wrote: post #41
mcphage wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 He's 14 years old and learning electronics—I'm not sure what light this sheds on anything?

It sheds light on the issue in that his parents likely orchestrated the whole thing.

It's unfortunate that the "hoax" label on this clock story is being considered by some a conspiracy theory.

All it takes is 15 minute to look into the political history of the kids father and the nature of the clock that he "built" to realize something is amiss.

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