14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School • Hacker News Board

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

#741

Post by Animats » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 6:59 PM UTC

What probably happened here is that the kid bought one of the many digital clock board kits available.[1][2] The problem is that these look just like the TV/movie version of bombs, because, of course, prop people use the same boards.

Not real bombs, though. Richard Marcinko, the founder of Seal Team Six, once wrote that he'd blown up a lot of things in his career and he'd never seen a count down timer with glowing numbers.

[1] http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-digital-clock-... [2] https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10930

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

#742

Post by xasos » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 6:59 PM UTC

pdabbadabba wrote: post #613

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…

President Obama has invited Ahmed to bring his "cool clock" to the White House: https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/644193755814342656

As well as Zuck inviting him to Facebook's HQ: http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/16/9338747/mark-zuckerberg-fa...

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

#743

Post by carbide » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 6:59 PM UTC

QUFB wrote: post #574

Looks like he's been invited to the White House: https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/644193755814342656

I just experienced a moment of pride in the leadership of our country

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

#744

Post by rflrob » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:00 PM UTC

I don't want to suggest that what the school and police did to this guy is anything but terrible, but I suspect that he'll actually be fine in the long run. If I were an admissions officer at MIT, I'd jump at the chance to admit someone with an essay "I was arrested for building a clock".

I think the bigger concern is all the people who get in trouble with the powers that be, and don't have media savvy parents with time or knowledge or connections to get something in the local paper and/or get in touch with civil rights organizations.

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

#745

Post by frederickf » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:01 PM UTC

The Irving ISD Student Code of Conduct, which the principle alleges the student to have broken, can be downloaded at http://www.irvingisd.net/Page/5183.

I couldn't find anything in there prohibiting a clock or other non-communication related electronic devices. I didn't read every word so maybe I missed something.

I did find the following under the prohibited items section: "Any articles not generally considered to be weapons, including school supplies, when the principal or designee determines that a danger exists."

But that would seem to create a dilemma in this situation. If it was a bomb it wouldn't be covered by that stipulation, but if it was a clock then no reasonable person could consider it to be dangerous.

If we're being charitable we could assume the principled believed it was a bomb at the time, in which case it would have been covered by other stipulations in the code. But if that is the case then I would think the school should have been evacuated. I don't know if that happened or not.

Also, good lord, I don't ever remember having to sign something like that document (it's a 44 page document that reads like a contract) when I was in school. Is it even legally binding to have a minor sign that?

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

#746

Post by zo1 » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:04 PM UTC

baldfat wrote: post #661

msandford wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not making very coherent arguments. What's wrong with a voucher system whereby the PARENTS of the children being educated are the ones who determine which child the school goes to? Doesn't that make it very easy for the parents to shut bad schools down very quickly? It seems like that solves all the problems you're worried about, while also providing more choices to parents and students. What's the downside?

Voucher and Charter School are two different things. Charter Schools are taking over Public School System. Vochers are evil for many social reasons. I'll just focus on one. So Vouchers really will be the new segregation tool for the 21st Century. Your money will be used to send kids to religious schools you don't like teaching Islam, Christianity in all its forms, or who knows what and if they want to teach the child…

Are Texas public schools not proof that public schools are not immune from this "teach the children ignorance and hate" thing you speak of? You have to think past stage-one if you want to meddle with peoples' lives on such a grand scale.

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

#747

Post by fapjacks » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:05 PM UTC

This isn't surprising to hear coming from Texas, the state where legislation has titles like "The Save Orphans of Firemen Act" but actually when you read it, you find out they just want to bulldoze some poor peoples' homes on the east side of town to build a dump. And the bill includes some gerrymandering in the Ferengi print. Texas is like that.

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

#748

Post by shkkmo » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:05 PM UTC

maratd wrote: post #647

jkestner wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that lots of money is wasted in the public school system, but we don't need University of Phoenix brought to elementary schools.

> we don't need University of Phoenix brought to elementary schools. I realize that from your perspective, the world if full of imbeciles ... but just for a second, consider that {insert for-profit college name} is providing a service that people want and that's why people are choosing it. Those people don't care how the money they are paying is divvied up afterward. Whether it goes into the pocket of some administra…

> but just for a second, consider that {insert for-profit college name} is providing a service that people want and that's why people are choosing it.

Are you aware of how extremely predatory many of these for-profit colleges have been? Their students aren't getting something they want.

I don't disagree with vouchers in general, but you can't just ignore the risks when using public funds to have private institution provide education.

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

#749

Post by baldfat » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:07 PM UTC

msandford wrote: post #713

baldfat wrote: post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voucher and Charter School are two different things. Charter Schools are taking over Public School System. Vochers are evil for many social reasons. I'll just focus on one. So Vouchers really will be the new segregation tool for the 21st Century. Your money will be used to send kids to religious schools you don't like teaching Islam, Christianity in all its forms, or who knows what and if they want to teach the child…

So the money for education can only be spent on the kind of education YOU like, and not the kind of education that the parents like? You do realize that's incredibly arrogant, right? You and other enlightened people know what's best, but everyone else who disagrees with you about what's best is unenlightened swine? That's tautological.

Your missing the point. They can spend their money where you would be mad. So if they go to a school where history is through the lens of white supremacy and teach that science is evil because it contradicts their narrow version of the Bible and that God created black people because of the curse on Noah's son for having homosexual sin with Noah your fine? By the way a LOT of people believe this especially in the south. (Also BTW Noah's son Cush who did this "looking on his father naked" the scriptures say they went to Persia and NOT to Africa but that is another matter of facts getting way to their fictionalized bibles)

Also show one example where vouchers BETTERED students education? It didn't in Switzerland it actually made their scores worse since 1992.

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

#750

Post by Natsu » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:09 PM UTC

nerd_stuff wrote: post #518

digler999 wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 350 watt psu, PSU's arent light bulbs. A "350 watt" psu doens't draw 350 watts. That's the theoretical maximum you can draw from it. Sure, SETI was probably drawing a higher load than idle, vs off, but I highly doubt it was drawing 100%. Even more complicated is the heat. If they lived in a cool climate, at least some of the waste heat that was emitted would have been absorbed by the building, which they are (presu…

He lived in Arizona which is hot and a school full of space-heaters (humans) will probably run AC more often than heat. What grandparent commenter showed was the school district's numbers are plausible. I doubt the district entered into a legal battle without first consulting an engineer or two about the electric costs.

Speaking only for myself, in Phoenix we barely ever turn on heat, even in winter, whereas the AC is currently running and will be for another month or two yet.