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9th-Grader May Face Charges After Homemade Clock Mistaken For Bomb
New submitter bengoerz writes: 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was led away from MacArthur High School in handcuffs and faces possible charges after teachers, school administrators, and police in Irving, Texas mistook his homemade clock for a bomb. The device — a circuit board, power supply, and digital display wired together inside a pencil box — was confiscated by a teacher after the alarm sounded in class. Despite telling everyone who would listen that his device was just a clock, Ahmed was confronted by four police officers, suspended for three days, and threatened with expulsion unless he made a written statement, before eventually being transported to a juvenile detention center to meet his parents.
Unfortunately, a lot of the stupid seem to have involved themselves in education.
Brown skin, name like 'Ahmed Mohamed' and home made electronic clock. He is lucky to be alive actually.
He made the mistake of thinking that school was a place for learning and exploration. It is not.
He also made the mistake of not having white skin and having a Muslim-sounding name.
Please don't be a Arab-sounding name. Shit!
Please don't be in Texas. Fock!
Sigh... well played, stereotype, well played.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
That used to mean something in this country. Now the "terrorists" are out to get us from every corner. Benjamin Franklin's quote about safety and liberty applies more and more every day. If it was a Caucasian kid named Billy Martin, would this even be "news"?
I cannot believe the stupidity of the teachers. They should be suspended.
The school should pay damages to cover emotional distress and follow up therapy for the kid.
Well done...
America Freedom fuck yerrrr!
This is why America has no future
Rather than arresting him, and acting like ignorant idiots, the school should be rewarding him.
Here's how to reach out to the Irving ISD superintendent to let him know what you think:
Jose Parra
Superintendent of Schools
972-600-5001
jparra@irvingisd.net
These are quit possibly the stupidest teachers, principals, and cops I've ever seen.
This would have been me in 1976. Obviously, it wasn't quite that easy to make a clock back then. But, I was building things all of the time. The knowledge I gained has served me well my entire life. This is the kind of thing we should be encouraging. Tinkerers have helped to make this country what it is. To profile a kid like this into the criminal category is just beyond sad. I hope it doesn't discourage him from exploring his interests down the road. He needs to find a local Maker group. The school and police need to get a clue.
So, he might be charged ... for not making a bomb ... and for telling everybody it's not a bomb?
What the actual fuck? He didn't create a bomb, he didn't create a hoax bomb. Morons incorrectly concluded he made a bomb, he told them repeatedly it wasn't a bomb, but these morons now wish to charge him for the non-making of a non-bomb in a non-hoaxing kind of way?
These police are fucking morons, who if left in public could be accidentally confused with competent law enforcement officers. They should be charged with creating a hoax police department.
Apparently being a nerdy brown kid is now illegal in America. If this was a white Christian kid, he'd be a national fucking hero.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
We didn't used to be a bunch of sniveling cowards! There was a time when we used to exude bravery and instead of pissing our pants at the possibility of a problem we shrugged them off and dealt with them as necessary. And now look at us. Some kid brings a science project to school and we have jackasses wondering if he did this to create a stink. Maybe the kid just wanted to experiment with electronics - like a lot of us did when we were kids. Oh right, no one here on SlashDot ever did that. Christ!
http://www.makershed.com/products/defusable-alarm-clock-kit
I have that kit waiting patiently in a drawer for my 12y/o to get the initiative to build it. They even have some cool ideas on wrapping dowels and routing the "defuse" wires through them to make it look like dynamite sticks. Clearly I would tell him never to bring that to school. But now, I'd have to worry about some friend coming over, seeing it and telling his parents. One can only imagine a similarly damaging misunderstanding taking place.
Seems we have already lost the war...
What are the chances he was just making a clock? Clocks are relatively simple projects that are made by millions of hobbyists to learn about electronics. One can learn a lot from such a simple project - soldering, reading and understanding electronic component data sheets, programming- all are required in such a project.
Just as water is a common ingredient in insecticides, the fact that clocks happen to be used in some bombs is testament to their broad range of uses.
You know, cell phones are commonly used to make remote bomb triggers (for some of the bombs that don't have clock timers). Is every kid in that school carrying a cell phone intending to blow people up? Maybe we should put them all in cuffs until we can sort this mess out.
Why punish this kid? He did nothing wrong. Punish the hysterical school officials who lack the sense to tell a clock from a bomb for wasting police time.
Recipients: dacummings@irvingisd.net, othomas@irvingisd.net, mespino@irvingisd.net, sheller@irvingisd.net, awong@irvingisd.net, psmith@irvingisd.net
(from http://www.irvingisd.net/domain/2031 )
Email message:
To whom it concerns,
I had to read this article about a boy who tinkers with electronics as a hobby:
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-9th-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school-so-you-tried-to-make-a-bomb.ece
I hope it is not standard practice of the school to traumatize kids the way this has been dealt with. Kids who take up interests in sciences should be supported. Not jailed.
why we have so many terrorists. When you treat everyone like one, they end up rising to your expectations.
Remember the 2007 Boston 'bomb'? The LED light sign advertising Aqua Teen Hunger Force?
When they realized they were just signs, and the police chief and mayor had been idiots, they switched the claim to "intent to plant a hoax device to cause panic", so the panic they were spreading by claiming it was a bomb, they then twisted that to pretend that panic came from the people placing the LED signs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare
They dig a hole for themselves, and they dig it deeper and deeper until they come across as unfit to run a city or school.
Here, you see the same thing:
"Ahmed never claimed his device was anything but a clock, said police spokesman James McLellan. And police have no reason to think it was dangerous. But officers still didn’t believe Ahmed was giving them the whole story."
“We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb,” McLellan said. “He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation.”
"Asked what broader explanation the boy could have given, the spokesman explained:"
“It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?”
******
They know its not a bomb, so they go for the "might be mistaken for a bomb if placed under a car" angle. Some fictional extra bit, that might turn a non-bomb into something that might be mistaken for a bomb by someone as idiot as themselves.
I'm better they watch Fox News.
What happened to the cows?
Presumably he made this for a class, and if so, why didn't that teacher stand up for him and tell them it was for his class?
And if it wasn't for a class or club or something, that does admittedly seem a bit suspicious.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
If I was named Ahmed Mohamed I would not carry anything that can be mistaken for a bomb.
" Is every kid in that school carrying a cell phone intending to blow people up? Maybe we should put them all in cuffs until we can sort this mess out."
A lot of teachers would probably like that, actually. Not because they think cell phones are to blow people up, just because kids are so fixated on them instead of class.
The real concern here is whether this was done as a social experiment, or some kind of test of equality or racial discrimination, to see what kind of response would occur if something "shady looking" was brought to school. I haven't found any pictures of the actual device, but it was in one of those metal pencil cases that looks like a briefcase with a handle, and it had a steel cable around it. About half way through the video the boy says "I closed it with a cable because I didn't want to lock it to make it seem like a threat so I used a simple cable so it wouldn't look that much suspicious". The very fact that the boy admitted to the fact that he himself had concerns about exactly how suspicious it appeared gives me the impression that he (and / or his parents or whomever) were trying to walk the finest line possible on making this benign from a legal standpoint (it wasn't locked, and wasn't dangerous at the end of the day), but still raise questions and some amount of suspicion as to what all may be inside.
It sounds like that is what the police are considering - was done to "test" the response of schools and police by walking that thin line between innocence and baiting.
A far, far more extreme example would be to have 9th graders of various races point a fake gun at police offices to see which ones get shot. Of course that is taking the example to the extreme, but I'm curious if that was the kind of thing that this "clock" was about. However, since pictures of the exact thing he brought to school are not available, none of us can even form an opinion for ourselves "does this look like something that a reasonable person would be concerned about in this context".
And finally, I want to point out that taking a clock's innards out of its original plastic case, and sticking it in some other enclosure, is not "inventing" or "making". It's cool stuff and educational (I loved taking things like that apart as a kid), but it's not actually making a clock.
Better known as 318230.
People are morons, "Oh no, its a circuit board with wires! It must be a bomb!", blithely ignoring the fact that their TV's, Cars, Phones and virtually every electronic device your average person comes into contact with on a daily basis is a "circuit board with wires", just packaged a little neater. I suppose its possible this kid was doing this on purpose to attract attention, but this hardly sounds like this is a passing interest so I'm a bit dubious regarding that interpretation. We seem to be at a point in our cultures history where intelligence and self sufficiency is looked down on and even feared, its like a clip from "Idiocracy", where the main character is trying to explain his situation to people and they become increasingly violent towards him because he's using halfway decent English and words above a 4th grade level.
Ahmed Mohamed, not white, made a home-brew device of some sort. -has anyone not noticed how paranoid, racist and over-the-top police in America is?
Sorry to tell you this Ahmed but you should get ready to be hand-picked in random selection in the future...
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
Amazing how things change.
This has been a regular story on /. since the 90s, pretty much all white kids. But this time, the exact same story is, according to the article and most of the comments, evidence of racism and/or anti-Muslim hatred.
The next time this happens, probably in 3 to 6 months, will it be about anti-white racism and anti-Christian hatred? Or will it go back to just being evidence that we need to toss everyone involved with "education" into a giant sack and drown them in the river?
See that "Preview" button?
Not a single person at the government school or the government police force who mistreated this kid will ever face even a mild consequence. No one will apologize for their role.
The only reason everyone thought it was a bomb first was because of his name. It's sad in 2015 we still can't be adult and mature.
Oh fuck. America land of the big white racist cunts.
This is really unfortunate to see this happen and it's really no wonder why this kid got chastised for this. I'm sure it boiled down to this: Kid proud of his achievement (regardless if his own classmates were going to grapple the concept of what he did or not), . Heck, name one kid you didn't know that wanted to show something they bought/got/made/received to show their friends or a teacher they lookup to; my kids do it ALL THE TIME. Now with the larger population, not everyone is bringing in home-brew EE projects, but the majority of us can wrap out minds around what we're presented with. Get something slightly technical or outside our metal capacity or comfort zone and everyone starts shitting themselves and crying chicken little.
What you never hear in these situations is a success story where teacher/educator saw mind-blowing potential in this that their school system was never (repeat, NEVER) going to aide this student in, reached out to some maker group in the city and got the kid and his parents introduced and/or involved. Nope, we just see school board dick swinging to the 3rd degree and toss the quick-to-use endangerment card.
I wish I was dabbling with EE at 14 vs early 20's and I'm sure glad my boss hasn't labeled me a metal-box-bomb-toting-going-postal-terrorist and fired me for the nixie tube clock I am staring at right now while typing this.
Will the self-righteous, goody-goody moronic crowd ever learn?
Contrary to what the sumary says, no, nobody mistook the clock for a bomb. Even people whose entire education about bombs comes from 24 know that a bomb is made of a triggering device, possibly electronic, attached to some kind of explosive charge. There was no sign of a charge, and the clock was small enough to be easily and completely examined. Everybody here knew exactly what they were dealing with.
Also, at least some of this situation was probably a way of harassing Ahmed's father by proxy. Read the last section of the article (after the 'Invent good things' heading), and then remember that the cop who was a total stranger to Ahmed said "Yup. That's who I thought it was." Ahmed had never seen the cop before, but it sure seems like the cop had seen at least a photo of Ahmed. Gee, I wonder why? This kid made not only the mistake of being brown in Texas, but also the mistake of having a brown father that the local racist authorities already dislike.
So.. I assume there will be consequences for the LEOs involved?
Oh yeah. No, just consequences for the kid.
Sad.
..don't panic
The schools unfortunately deal with kids and parents and sometimes the parents are the worst. They do not teach life skills, common sense, and manners. Leaving
the schools to balance a fine line between so many parents with differing view points. Yes, schools over react because if they didn't somebody would complain. Kids go home and are a recorder for spilling the days happenings. Of course at least one parent will be upset about something. Education used to be about educating not about how they talk, interact, and reprimand kids in their control. Parents used to just be on the same page with educators. Make my kid a person that the outside world can accept. Now parents are second guessing educators all the time. I personally would have thought nothing about a child bringing a clock to school. Yet, the first thing somebody related to it was a bomb? Since when is a society in America relating a clock with a bomb? How many bombs go off in a school? Has the terrorists already won when we discipline a child for bringing a clock to school and the teacher over reacts and believes its a bomb? This whole country is full of idiots over reacting to stuff. Yes we need to be observant and on guard for potential problems. But not condemn innocent activities. My issue with society is generally this. We have threats that are real and then we have threats that are not real and only perceived as real. Cars don't kill people, people under the influence kill, guns don't kill people who want to kill are the problem. Alcohol does not destroy lives, alcoholics destroy lives. Kids with clocks do not kill but kids with bombs do. Deal with the threat not the perceived threat.
Irvine High School appears to have some genuine stupid educators.
Salem Witch Trials, Mass Murder of Scientists, Islamophobia, 2007 Boston Bomb Scare, and now this.
The teacher confiscated the "bomb" which sat in their drawer until the end of class when it was taken to administration. If the teacher truly believed that the device could have even remotely been a bomb, they would not have touched it, would have evacuated the school, and would have called bomb squad. The teacher, the administration, and the police are complicit in perpetuating a fraud - a fraud against a child.
Even in the case that the clock resembled a "movie bomb" or was purposely contracted to do so, the child did nothing wrong as long as he didn't hint at it being a bomb or use it to threaten anyone. There are plenty of clocks on the market that resemble a bomb. Yes, it may have been a lark. Yes, it may have been a protest to create awareness. No, it wasn't malicious. No, it wasn't threatening. And no, it obviously wasn't convincing.
I seriously hope that he follows in his father's footsteps and keeps challenging the status quo.
[Rent This Space]
They burned.
And the bright continue to get punished by the ignorance.
If I could tell Ahmed anything it would be keep inventing, outside of school. Apparently school is not the place for learning or inventing and is actively hostile to this. If you keep learning outside of school, you will become successful while the school, and those who don't learn for themselves, will keep falling behind.
Government run education simply doesn't need to be any good - the government has a monopoly. They take your tax dollars by force and then require you to attend school.
Sure, you can enroll in any number of private schools, but you will still pay for government run schools.
The only way out of this that ensures even poor kids get an education is charters and vouchers. No unions, no teachers riding tenure all the way to their pension days. Government (aka taxpayers) still pay for every kid to get an education - and the schools need to compete for enrollment.
Create a Government monopoly in anything and you will get a bunch of people who will do just enough work to not get fired.
At least they weren't vegan witches. I can't stand vegans.
As soon as I get home where I can access my personal e-mail, this is heading out.
It's a brilliant troll, in my experience as a grandad of three, I have found that 14yr olds have a tendency to bear bait authority figures in imaginative ways. Of all the people in the world, you would think professional teacher's and cops could find a better way to show the kid that bear baiting doesn't work.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I wonder why so many think that society would be better if these people had spent more classroom time on coding.
as long as the kids carrying cellpoines don' have terrorist names and dark skin, they will be fine. even if they carry a ticking package or something with a red lcd-display that obviously looks like a bomb to the uneducated teacher.
Sadly, it's very likely in this case that it's the exact opposite Guilty Until Proven Innocent. As the result of the proliferation of Zero Tolerance Policies in schools, many of us have likely heard of student being suspended or expelled for taking their toy G.I. Joe gun to school (you know the tiny solid plastic ones) or eating their cheese sandwich into the shape of a gun and brandishing it at another student.
It's likely not a case of the teachers or administrators overreacting so much as having to follow the draconian policies foisted upon them by the school board or local laws. It's more appalling that the police actually took the kid away.
Land of the free? Nope.
Home of the brave? Haha nope.
For being STUPID in raising a false alarm with the police. If I wasted a bunch of police officer's time with a false charge, they wouldn't be very happy.
This is a perfect example of the lack of knowledge in our public school systems on so many levels.
What are the chances he was just making a clock?
I don't know, was he supposed to be making a clock? Was he bringing it for show and tell? I'm sure these days that those sort of things have to be known about in advance.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Joey Hudy, who is white and doesn't have an "Arab" name, was invited to the White House to show the President a gun that he made.
"He’s vowed never to take an invention to school again."
Reading that article gave me a sick feeling in my stomach. It sounded like they were describing a grisly murder when they were detailing the exact manner in which a school's ignorance and racism crushed the spirit and enthusiasm of a smart and motivated kid. Then I read that last line. That might be one of the most profoundly sad things I've ever read.
Specifically, the over-reacting teachers, administrators, and police. They are victimizing innocent kids because of their ignorance and extreme sensitivity. The teacher to which he brought the clock was the only sane one among them.
Is every kid in that school carrying a cell phone intending to blow people up?
Yes, they are. Most won't actually go through with it, but yes they are planning to. Why? It's the only way they know of to get out of Texas.
I want to thank the teacher and police officers from stopping this young kid from telling what time it is. For once someone has stood up to young kids to protect time from their prying eyes. For at least one day time has been saved and can move in privacy from our young kids. If only more teachers were smart enough to protect time from our younger generations
Stupid in schools happens all the time, to kids of all backgrounds. In recent case, a second grader was eating toast. Apparently he "pointed" the toast at a classmate. Wham! Suspended under their zero-tolerance gun policy. Hello, toast is not a gun! That kid happened to be caucasian.
What do you expect? It was Texas, and they weren't sure what a clock could be used for.
Let me introduce to you to the principal of the school:
Now let me introduce you to the mayor of Irving, Texas:
Finally, let's let Irving, Texas Police Office James McLellan speak for himself:
Get that? It's a clock and Officer McLellan wasn't sure "what was this thing built for"? So they took him into custody.
They suspended the kid for three days.
Jesus wept. Texas is a shithole.
You are welcome on my lawn.
FWIW: https://petitions.whitehouse.g...
We have fully grown adult Muslem men in America raping their own boys and not going to jail. Because. Islam. It's allowed. American law is outdated and backwards. It's not rape, an Imam said so. A daughter talks to the wrong boy, take her off the planet in a way the the so called authorities find out. Happens around here all the time. Schools are just told the girl went back to country X. They accept that at face value.
This is tolerance. Accept it. Hard, and Deep.
I will tell you want he should do next!
1) Make a list of exactly what it takes to make a clock like this
2) Talk to his friends, who talk to their friends, etc. and spread the list
3) Have as many of the high school students show up at a location on a Saturday and all build clocks
4) Have all of these students show up at school on Monday with their clocks
5) Have all the kids en-mass show their teachers the clocks they made right as school is starting. Make sure they all know, it is a clock.
6) Wait for the administration and police to react.
Problem solved. they can't suspend that many kids at once. The Police can't handle that many kids at once. If they don't respond the exact same way as they did to the first clock, then the lawsuits will fly! They can't respond to that many clocks being brought to school in the same manner so the police and school then have to say, yeah, it isn't that big a deal or they have to let their true crazy shine!
I think you maybe even get as many of the parents as you can to show up at school drop off with clocks as well!
So Irving Police and counter terrorism agents (and school teachers) apparently don't realize that a bomb requires explosive material to work. Plus, how is a bomb a hoax bomb if the person repeatedly tells everyone who has seen it that it's not? How is that even prosecutable?
The DallasNews story makes Ahmed look really innocent, and the school officials / police look really islamophobic. I admit, there is a good chance that's the case here (and if so, heads should roll at the school, ISD, police department, and possibly even the city), I can't help but think there is more to the story. It doesn't feel unbiased.
I need more information from all sides before I judge.
I'm also skeptical because no school administrators or teachers, nor anyone in the police organization tapped the brakes on the arrest, handcuffs, search, and demand for the written admission. My kids would have gone to MacArthur High School (we since moved to a different community), and at that school, this kid wouldn't stand out at all due to his name or skin color.
Finally, the "Yup. That’s who I thought it was" comment makes me wonder if the police already knew who Ahmed was for other reasons.
But not here sorry, it's not even a smidget funny..
he probably would have been patted on the back and told how innovative his project was.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
The world is still upside down. Billions spent. Liberties canned.
Maybe the people educating our youth shouldn't be basing their opinion of what is and isn't dangerous from Hollywood movies? Just a thought...
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Be careful how you present your science fair project. Your soda volcano could be taken by someone as terroristic geology.
Neither do I. Arcturians on the other hand are quite nice, if you can get past the fact that they look like medusae.
He's non-white. With an Arabic name. Frankly, it's a miracle he wasn't executed on the spot by the police for "resisting arrest". He and his parents need to get the hell out of Texas. And the south in general.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
This is why we can't have nice things.
you are a vegan cow. Cows say MOOOO! MOOOO Cows MOOOO! MOOOO says you. YOU VEGAN COW!!!
He wasn't just any "nerdy brown kid". His father is fairly well known as a spokesman trying to calm anti-islam rhetoric. Of course that shouldn't make the kid any more of a suspect, the teachers and police clearly over reacted because they knew the family. But again, he wasn't just some random kid.
No, after being ostracized and emotionally harmed by the people he's supposed to trust, he'll
1) turn inward
2) He'll learn to hate the system
3) He'll distrust anyone in authority
4) He'll find his friends turn against him
5) Those that don't he'll stop confiding in or trusting
6) He'll latch on to any group which accepts him and shares his hatred for the current authority
7) He'll vow revenge
8) He'll make a real bomb to show them all
And the self-fulfilling prophesy will be complete.
If we can't have terrorists to scare the people, we'll figure out a way to make them. For we need to be scared to be controllable.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Noted on Twitter last night that many people have found inexpensive electronic clock kits, and are sending them to Irving High to help the teachers learn about what clocks are, that they're not terribly threatening, and to help their kids learn to build them.
That address is:
Irving High School
900 N O Connor Rd
Irving, TX 75061
Circuitry: the new chemistry set.
or they would have evacuated the school and sent in the bomb-squad. They knew it wasn't a bomb the entire time.
At least he didn't take it on a plane.
They need to sue the living shit out of the school district. Hopefully they will be able to make enough money to pay for a private school and college.
And has been said elsewhere, file criminal charges against the school employees.
But what hasn't been said elsewhere, disciplinary measures, as in firing, against the police officers who actually hauled the kid off.
Most teachers don't like when a student gets ahead of class, and they like even less when a student gets ahead of the teacher.
Luckily they didn't involve the police when my brother and I went to school. I had the good teachers (the ones who knew more than a 7th grader), but my brother did almost get kicked out of computer classes for writing "C:\>" in Microsoft Paint, and clicking full screen (the computers were locked down so that the students couldn't get to the command prompt).
Somebody should just #nuketheusa so we don't have to hear more of this retarded bullshit please.
Yea biches, fear is the way of the new government, take it or fight!
Jose Parra
2621 W. Airport Freeway
Irving, TX 75062
Perhaps they just haven't seen many before, and it would be helpful if we all mailed Dr. Parra a clock so that he could have a baseline for what a clock might look like. Breadboard or wire-wrapped versions preferred.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The school system had the kid arrested. They suspended him for three days and forced him to sign a statement under duress. They allowed the police to interrogate him, on school property, without legal representation or the presence of an adult guardian. You know what they never did?
Evacuate the school
I do not block ads. I do block third party scripts.
Experimentation, and thinking your own thoughts that are not government approved Common Core learning will be punished.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
1000 times this, WTF kind of homemade clock has what looks like half a motherboard from a 1990's laptop?
And it's better to keep the proles stupid, because otherwise they might work out how to challenge the elite. So whilst good schools in good areas may be useful, it's better not to bother too hard. And of course it's cheaper to import PhDs from India than train them ourselves...
Knock this sh!t off already! This is not the 19th century. It's not even the 20th century. Grow up and stop this cr@p or turn in your 'freedom, liberty and justice' buttons and go sit by yourselves.
So not one teacher/official at the school could see there was no explosive?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
If his name was John Smith, this wouldn't happen.
A) nice assumption of innocence. Was this in Louisiana?
B) nice showing of Christian values too.
Where the hell is the picture of the "bomb clock"? I see a picture of the kid next to circuit board. If that is the "bomb clock" then a lot of adults need to get slapped upside the head.
The point being, what he is sitting next to could not conceivably be considered a bomb by anybody with a brain between their ears. Now, if the "clock" was a display protruding from a small box, where you can't see what is going on inside the box (as the story implies), then maybe (just maybe) there was a tiny shred of justification for their actions. However, maybe a more appropriate response (assuming the thing actually resembled a bomb) would have been to say "hey son, could you please show me what's inside the box?" If you were TRULY worried about it being a bomb, maybe evacuating the school and calling in the bomb squad would have been appropriate. I would expect any of those responses by the teachers if the kid was white, black, brown, purple, or green. But no, these backwards mother fuckers see a brown kid with a "muslim sounding" name and all hell breaks loose.
If the second teacher TRULY thought this was a bomb, why the fuck would you put it in your desk and leave it there for hours? They need to be fired, immediately, for failing to act responsibly in a "dangerous" situation. If the police were TRULY worried that this device was a bomb they all need to be fired, immediately, for failing to properly handle a suspected explosive device.
Oh, reading the story again, nobody ever thought it was ACTUALLY a bomb, they just thought it kinda looked like one. First teacher probably should be talked to, if he thought the device could be perceived as a threat (saying "you probably shouldn't show that to any one else") he should have confiscated it on the spot. Second teacher acted appropriately. Knew it wasn't actually a bomb, just thought it looked like one, so she confiscated it and reported it to the principle. I would expect the same thing to happen to someone that brought in something that could be perceived as a bomb, gun, knife, whatever. Principal? Yeah, he needs to be fired. Threatening to expel a student for not providing a written statement? Yeah, not cool. Intimidating a 14 year old by forcing a written statement without a parent present? I'd be pissed if they did that to my kids. The police involved, definitely reprimanded. Interrogating a minor without a parent present, big no-no. Arresting him without charging him with a crime? Also a no-no.
When I was a kid in school, I brought in all sorts of gizmos and doodads that I put together, I believe one of them was even a clock. I know I made a couple of them at that age.
No one ever said boo to me except, ohh thats really neat how did you learn to make that.
It was a circuit board in a pencil case.
A) You can see the whole thing.
B) A Pencil case is not large enough to house anything with much power even if it were for some reason explosive.
To call in the police? Absurd.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Trump says the politicians are all Stupid, hes right, except the population is dumber than the politicians.
If you have smart children, get them OUT of that crazy country as fast as you can. Evacuate.
In high school, for a science project, I put together a simple timing device, that involved two photovoltaic eyes from Radio Shack, a cheap electronic stopwatch, a breadboard, a bunch of red and black wires, and a couple large lantern batteries for power. Most of the components were just held to the batteries with duct tape. And yes, it looked a lot like a cartoon bomb. I joked how it looked like a cartoon bomb, and so did my parents. My teachers joked about it looking like a cartoon bomb. Somehow, I managed to not get arrested, or have to talk with any police officer that day.
It sure is nice being white some days (ok, just about every day). I suppose it being the early 90s didn't hurt either.
Hell, the school had an engineering teacher. Maybe if you really think you have something slightly suspicious, you give him a call, let him have a look at it. Maybe point out the complete lack of high explosives in it.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
named like this serves him right, fuck mohamed all all muslims, exterminate them all starting from this shitskin kiddo
system and not anti-Muslim bedwetting hysteria.
Hack on, hacks.
I've actually been thinking about this quite a bit lately, and I've come to the conclusion that this is really how America ends. Wallowing in its own stupidity, locked down by the authorities because we're afraid of everything we don't understand (which is everything, due to ignorance), and decrying any interest in something other than pop culture as suspicious.
When I was a kid some forty years ago, it was still possible to learn, make, see, and do things without nine layers of security clearances and being met with "you can't do X because terrorists/drugs" at every turn. Now, the only reasonable explanation for why you're interested in something is because you do it for work. And because some company makes you do it for money, now it's suddenly okay. Building anything with wires sticking out that beeps? Terrorist.
Learning chemistry at home? Terrorist or maybe the next Walter White. Interest in trucks/trains/planes and not a truck driver/engineer/pilot? Terrorist. Interested in power generation/distribution but not a power EE? Terrorist. Interested in computer security research? Cyberterrorist! Aiieeee! I could go on and on and on here...
Hey wait a minute - you know how most of the good people in those fields got there? Because it's what interested them before they did it as a job. In the past, there were always ways to learn about these things, particularly as a kid. Folks willing to show you around, show you what they did, explain how things worked, and sometimes let you help. I can't tell you the number of things I got to try out as a kid that would now get somebody fired and probably grilled by some three letter agency. But it's because of those experiences that I'm a successful electrical engineer today who loves it as both his profession and passion. I didn't just pick a job off the list, say "that looks good and pays well", and then decide to spend my life doing it. The folks I know who did that have already washed out and gone looking for something they enjoy more.
The next generation is boned. Their curiosity about things is being actively destroyed when its met with suspicion and investigation rather than encouragement or better - "Ssh, don't tell anybody, but put this hard hat on and come with me..." This is just one example.
Yeah, there's definitely a racist problem here as well (it *IS* Texas, folks...), but I think focusing on that is missing the real point. It's not just non-white kids. The powers that be have taught us to regard everything with suspicion rather than curiosity. Yet I ask you - how many kids have you seen today who are terrorists vs. how many have you seen who need to learn about the world and figure out what they want to do with their lives?
Most teachers are just average adults, they rely on popular culture to guide their fear, not logic and reason... A home made electronic clock is irrationally scarier than a $10 brick phone because it's used in films to portray such devices.
I don't know how you can prevent such things other than raising that "average" to include some better reasoning over prejudice and assumption grounded in fiction.
Welcome to Texas, the land of Jesus, Guns and Football!
Although my story has a funnier ending.
When I was in university, my second semester first year digital logic class had a pretty fun term project, which was to build a working digital clock only from basic electronic components and ttl ic's (harder than it sounds, actually). The school provided the components, students had to bring their own solderless breadboards.
Because the school had all of the components that anyone would need, everyone would generally work on their projects in the lab. One day, however, I found myself a secluded quiet corner of one of the academic buildings and was working on it there. I specifically was working on the display multiplexer for my clock so that the power draw was such that the leds were more visible, and for testing purposes, was just hooking it up to basic leds instead of 7-segment displays. I doing this for about maybe 15 minutes when suddenly I was approached by campus security, who had evidently been contacted about somebody doing something suspicious in the hallway. Evidently, with the rapid flashing lights that I was working on, somebody had concluded that I may be building a bomb.
Shocked at the notion, I showed my campus ID, and said who I was and what I was working on. I nevertheless had to go to the campus security office, and I was told I could not bring my electronic stuff... since I was a broke student, and that electronic stuff represented about $200 of investment, I wasn't willing to just leave it in the hallway, told them how much it cost me, why I was building it, and I even told them who my prof was. The security guy wasn't actually getting close to me, I think genuinely worried that it might still be a bomb, and standing about 15 feet away radioed security to ask them what he should do... apparently someone else in the office knew the professor and had heard of the course and the project, and told him that it should be okay for me to bring the stuff, but I had to close everything up and I couldn't directly touch it after that. Still, I had to go with him to campus security.
So a few minutes later, there I am, sitting in the campus security office, trying again to desperately explain my situation and a computer science professor who knows me happens to walk by, sees me through the window, and pokes in his head to ask what is going on. After a quick synopsis of what has happened, he laughs at the situation and vouches for me... he confirms that I am indeed enrolled in that class, and he says that there isn't any problem. I am let go.
Later that afternoon, I had a lecture in that class and the prof opens up by relating with an amused expression to the entire class that he got a call from campus security earlier that morning about one of his students (he looked *right* at me... he was told who it was) building a bomb in the hallways. He said that he appreciated people being eager to work on their project, but said that in the future, people should confine their work on it either to the lab or off campus, so that he doesn't end up getting another call at home about something like this.
Embarrassed as anything, I emphatically said I was sorry and that it wouldn't happen again, and everybody, including the professor, laughed at the situation.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
In Texas, STEM must mean "Syberterrorism, Terrorism, Even More terrorism" ... or maybe the M stands for 'Meth"; which is what you're doing if you even hint at liking chemistry.
In a country that is falling further and further behind the rest of the world in education, I find it particularly humorous (if it wasn't so sad) that we are spending billions on programs to push up the standards of schools; then we go and arrest the only students who show even a glimmer of intelligence.
Just so I've got this right, the only thing you're allowed to be interested in, while in school, is football.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Anyone who "tinkers" with electronics should be in jail.
When the police interrogated him in the principals office, one said "yeah, I knew it was him". His dad was the guy who argued with the preacher in Florida who burned a Koran. This is the town that had an issue with some "Sharia law" courts some people had set up at mosques, and their mayor got into a big "Fox news" style fight with them over it being an alternate court "outside the Constitution". Anyway, there are news sites in Dallas with info about his interrogation, other people can look for them but it's pretty obvious what just went down. And with four or five cops, the principal, a teacher, all shoved into one office that is interrogation. Possibly illegal, but I'm sure some lawyer will soon find the specific statues about all that. The dad has some "big friends" with deep pockets, and this probably will end up in a court room soon.
Putting on my tin foil hat, and properly grounding it, I theorize that the city government has already "profiled" him, his dad, and his whole family after the burning holy book deal a few years ago. After the mayor freaked out and went to the state of Texas to get an "anti foreign law" bill passed, anyone that remotely looks like their from the Middle East is probably on some Irving police list. The school itself was probably briefed by the police, and the principal and teacher may have already known about the book burning argument etc. He was told by the first teacher to "not show it to anyone else" but later an alarm on the clock went off in class.
This could also be part of an even greater plot by the specific Muslim groups to push a persecution complex and the kid was in on it or encouraged. I'm sure Bill O'Reilly will say something like this soon. But I try to always apply Hanlon’s Razor to why he would program an alarm to go off in class. But this whole thing just reaks. Both of these "sides" down in that area of Texas keep baiting each other. Same area of the "draw Mohamed" shootings, "foreign law courts" who claim to just be third party arbitrators...both groups have apocalyptic Armageddon leanings. And it's Texas, so chances are everyone is heavily armed.
This is an excellent point.
"I'm a humble person really,
I'm actually much greater than I think I am"
NO. This was not a troll. This was a kid who built a clock as an electronics project and told everyone it was a clock. Attributing malice to a kid who was tinkering with electronics is EXACTLY what is wrong in this situation. STOP.
He showed it to his engineering teacher first thing Monday morning and didn’t get quite the reaction he’d hoped for. “He was like, ‘That’s really nice,’” Ahmed said. “‘I would advise you not to show any other teachers.’” He said an officer he’d never seen before leaned back in his chair and remarked: “Yup. That’s who I thought it was.” “They were like, ‘So you tried to make a bomb?’” Ahmed said. “I told them no, I was trying to make a clock.” “He said, ‘It looks like a movie bomb to me.’” “We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb,” McLellan said. “He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation.” Asked what broader explanation the boy could have given, the spokesman explained: “It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?”
If that's not ignorant bigotry, I don't know what is.
Perhaps there was some other encouragement here, his father was involved in some media fight with a Florida preacher who burned a Koran. Or maybe it's genetic. He was told early in the morning by a teacher specifically to "not show it to anyone else", so...he set an alarm to go off in class? He looked quite "indignified" in his photo-op shot in cuffs, and this IS Irving, TX. Home of the "Sharia law" court "scandal" which ALSO seems a bit trollish overall, and the mayor flipped out over it and blew it up. This was all part of a much larger game of chess, with players stretching all the way back to the Middle East via the kid's dad who, is a first generation immigrant from some war-torn country over there.
Just don't build any ticking or blinking devices when your name is Ahmed or Mohamed.
The fucking ego and arrogance of law enforcement is often unbelievable. It's not just at local police departments either: feds have behaved in this exact manner when someone (admittedly, ill-advisedly) brought circuit boards to an airport. Reacting with an excess of caution is understandable; turning it into a criminal case because you mistook steam for smoke and think you'll look stupid if you don't start a fire is inexcusable.
Sounds like a smart industrious kid. His college fund is going to get a big boost when he sues the shit out of these idiots.
Or rather, the terrorists did not win. All they did was to bring up the inherent Anglo Saxon tradition of the total nation-state from Elizabethan England that defines America, in spite of epithets in contrary which are not worth more than the ink spilled in them.
The state of oklahoma says YES.
A few years ago it was policy that in the event of an emergency all the cellphones would be taken from the students as the possibility that one of them might use one to detonate a bomb outweighed the safety benefits of them being able to call for help. I understand that now they require all students to register their phones with the office at the beginning of the year.
At the nearest school to me;
Fences were built around the walkways between the buildings and a magnetic door lock with buzz in were added to the main entry ways alternate entries stay locked now.
No metal detectors yet...however the school in town has had them for a few years now.
Its a good thing no one there ever heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory or they might have had to add emergency exits in case of fire.
But fire is an imaginary danger the real threat is terrorists.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
“He just wants to invent good things for mankind,” said Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, who immigrated from Sudan and occasionally returns there to run for president.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
As a nine-year-old in the early 1980's, I used to freak out little old ladies at the library reference desk by asking for the Bomb Making Handbook. It was listed in the card catalog but wasn't on the shelf. Never got the book. Did find a chemistry reference book with a few base formulas for explosives. Blowing up crap was a lot easier back then it is today.
Probably should have taken the batteries out. Also, as stupid as people are, given the world climate today, it sounds FOOLISH to be walking around with a bunch of wires, circuit board, display inside any building. I'm sure if he were black, white, hispanic, yellow, would have gotten about the same reaction. But, you must remember, it's not "profiling" as far as I'm concerned. The predominate race that is cutting off heads, burning people alive, blowing up themselves are people from the middle east. If 99 year old grandmothers in wheelchairs were doing that, people would be afraid of 99 year old grandmothers in wheelchairs. But, in this politically correct world, you can bet the school system will be sued, AND WIN.
"Engineering while Muslim".
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
There's an interesting quote from an earlier version of the BBC News article on this story (since replaced)...
Police spokesman James McLellan said that, throughout the interview, Ahmed had maintained that he built only a clock, but said the boy was unable to give a "broader explanation" as to what it would be used for.
I can imagine how it went down...
Ahmed: It's a clock
Police: But what would it be used for?
Ahmed: What do you mean? It's a clock
Police: And what kind of things would you use a clock for?
Ahmed: I tell you, it's a clock! What do you think you do with a clock?
Police: You tell me
Ahmed: It's a clock! It tells the time! It's a clock!
Police: Ah, so you admit it's a clock. Now what would you use it for?
We are the only country in the industrialized world where people pee their pants at the sight of a exposed circuit board.
Everywhere else in the world, Kids are experimenting with Raspberry Pi and similar cool shit. Here in the USA, you can't have any electronics that aren't encased in an Apple or Samsung shroud.
No wonder jobs are fleeing America. The people wonder why the "jobs creators" are moving their operations overseas, but the truth is evident.
In 10 years, there will be no educated workforce here, there will be no people who can design and produce the technology needed for late 21st century operations.
This country is done for. I need to seriously consider getting the hell out of this hole before the shit really does hit the fan.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
"He’s vowed never to take an invention to school again."
This is the true shame in all of it. First thing when he gets back to school he should do is start an engineering club. I'm sure after the settlement he'll be able to give a nice donation to the club to keep it going for a long time and really stick it to them.
This was more about harassing the parents than the child. The kid is just caught in the middle. They (the majority of the locals) don't want his high-profile father associated with the town. So they are going to aggravate the family.
Anytime anything goes wrong, we all get into this frenetic search to find a scapegoat, "if only this bureaucrat had done this instead of that ..." We have trained the whole system to act in the CYA mode.
I am not saying the teacher made a honest mistake. I am saying we all share a little of the blame. We had a part in creating this system, this CYA mentality. Let us remember this incident next time some bureaucrat makes a common sense decision that blows up on his/her face.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
For some reason, I read the Police lines in the voice of Colonel Flagg from MASH...
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
What GP seems to be referring to is not just that men are, and have been, a minority in schools. GP seems to be referring to the fact that children who want to have physical play are punished and/or given medication to stop them from the desire to have physical play. Physical play is associated with, and is normal, male behavior (biology people, not discrimination).
Much of the male discrimination in schools and universities today is associated with what is commonly called 3rd wave feminism, and that is what I believe GP intended to say. Not "feminized", but influenced by extreme feminism.
For the ignorant, the push from this group in very simple terms is that men are bad and evil and women are good. As an example, their rhetoric will claim that if women were in charge we would have no wars, and that men are the cause of all crimes. Neither of these things are reality, and a cursory study of history will demonstrate that it's fantasy. They will also claim that the only reason men were providers and women raised the kids was because men are oppressive. Which ignores reality like biology and all of the inventions needed to get around requiring a parent/partner in the house full time.
Unfortunately, a good portion of the 3rd wave feminists have roots in our Universities and they have had influence in education (which leads to influences in culture).
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
America, country gone totally mad... All that even if kid told them its a clock... I wonder if entire country can be diagnose as paranoid schizophrenia.
http://www.amazon.com/4M-4568-...
Don't kid yourself kids. Potatoes are oozing with radon 226 and potassium 40 making them the perfect radiological weapons of mass destruction.
None of the photos in the article are of the actual clock, which has been confiscated by police. They are of other projects, the only one that is explained is a USB router, I can make out some audio/video jacks and power supplies in the other images but not really enough to tell what they are. Clocks are actually rather complicated internally, home building one from basic components would require quite a few components. The only reason why watches and timing circuitry in phones are so small is because most of the functions are condensed into an IC chip.
The slashdot comments are overwhelmingly bashing the school and police. Like 99.5% to 0.5%.
Maybe rightfully so, but maybe not. This Dallas Morning News story feels biased and incomplete.
I'm just surprised no one is calling for more information before passing judgement.
If the police want to charge him with making a hoax bomb when he never threatened anyone with saying it was a bomb, then the real charge should be making a hoax terrorism threat against the police who arrested him. Of course the police don't get charged with breaking the law, that would be ridiculous. This is why I rejoice when I hear another one of those blue fuckers gets shot and killed. They don't answer to the law, but they sure do answer to being dead!
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
Words fail me.
-- Cheers!
nice state-sponsored curriculum... oh, wait, in Texas that means "Bubba had two six-packs. he drank 11 beers. can he drive?"
the answer of course is "Go Aggies!"
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
What are the chances that you're a moronic fucking oxygen thief who should have been strangled at birth?
Oh yeah, 100%.
Detained, questioned, no Miranda, etc. The list goes on ... and on. Sounds to me like a good lawyer will make this kid a LOT of money.
I trust that Mr Mohamed's Alarm Clock has been restored to to him, after the "grown-ups" have finished making it safe.
My suggestion would be to place a switch in he clock to disarm de-activate the alarm when you don't want the whole school to evacuate when it's time for Maths.
--
E
This is almost as pathetic as the "educators" who kicked the kindergartner out for nibbling his Pop Tart into the shape of a gun.
Whats the chances that the little shit did it on purpose, because he knew people would think that. I can see a kid doing that. Unfortunately the it backfired.
I was an electronics hobbyist at his age (and getting back into it now). Clocks are actually an extremely common hobbyist project, and were in the 1970s/80s when I was really into it. It's an easy project and useful at the same time. So, yeah, my guess is he just made a clock.
Do you have ESP?
Won't happen. The kid is on a blacklist now. He'll be lucky if he ends up flipping burgers.
At least Apple won't sue him for saying that it looks too much like the apple watch...
http://mysharona1987.tumblr.co...
Finding anyone under 35 that can actually build anything is like winning the power ball jackpot and the odds about the same.
Grab an Arduino and a display module and you'll have your complicated clock in less than half an hour.
I used to build illegal CB, FM and shortwave transmitters when I was his age (mid-70's). People around me thought it was pretty cool, or nerdy at best.
I can only shiver on the thoughts how my activities would have been judged if I did that today. Times have changed, and fear has changed society enough to make me believe the 'turrists' have won.
To Terminate, or not to Terminate, that's the question - SCSIROB
You know, cell phones are commonly used to make remote bomb triggers (for some of the bombs that don't have clock timers). Is every kid in that school carrying a cell phone intending to blow people up? Maybe we should put them all in cuffs until we can sort this mess out.
Stop Giving them ideas...
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
Once when I went through my "High Voltage" phase, I build a small project box with a transformer, momentary switch and a 9 volt battery. When you interrupted the circuit it collapsed the field and produced a small electric shock. I built it in a box marked "Lie Detector"! I had fun all day tricking people with it. Today, I would have been sued or arrested.
In the end, engineering and electronics became big areas of exploration in my life and career. It's sad to see this happen to a kid because the negative impact is indelible. Reminds me of the Aqua Teen LED sign event in Boston in 2007.
The ultimate irony to me is that actual terrorists are known to use a specific cheap Casio wrist watch for the timing mechanisms, not some comically large device you'd see in a movie.
The alarm went off...
Wouldn't that be a little too late to ban the kid had it been a bomb?
My reaction to the headlines was "Seriously? Even after they know its not a bomb?" Then I read the students name and the location of the "crime" and my confusion evaporated.
After all, you can get suspended or expelled from school for drawing a stick figure with a gun or carrying a fingernail clipper. Our schools (mainly from pressure from ignorant parents) have become so hyper-sensitized to anything that might be used in some "dangerous" way that the mere reference to them is grounds for dismissal.
It's not about "Texas", it's not about "Muslim", it's not about "electronics" - it's about the lunacy of parents demanding 100% absolute, guaranteed, rock-solid perfect care for their precious little ones and an education-Government complex that feeds on that.
Damn the education, it's for the children!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
In American institutions like schools and prisons, that word can get you a month in solitary.
But you see, he's on the A-list for the persecution set, he can make six-figures a year just by giving speeches.
When I was a kid, I took electronic stuff to school...even a bare circuit board with flashing lights on it, although that was only a few inches square. I did once hook up an NES to a portable TV & 6 D-cell batteries via alligator clip leads to make a portable video game machine, though...& nobody thought it was suspicious. (I once got accused of hacking...an Apple IIe...without even being present. Those do not even have any permanent storage, so I am guessing something just randomly happened to break after someone used one of my disks (that the teacher forced me to let them use while I was doing homework) in it. But even so, nothing came of it except a teacher telling me not to break the school's computers. (I did, however, once get a boot sector virus from the school's PCs.))
If this kid is not to become a terrorist (or spend the rest of his life on a no-fly list), his parents need to contact a publicist and GET HIS ASS ON THE TODAY SHOW. Tearfully explain to Matt Lauer that it was all a big misunderstanding, how frightened his parents were, show some tears running down Matt's face as he speaks softly and sympathetic and reports that nobody from the school or police or governor's office returned requests for comment... the kid will get his 15 minutes of fame and the scholarships will start to roll in. Kickstarter to help this family move to a decent, tolerant town. Four more years, he'll be at an Ivy League school (oh, you're THAT kid!).
That's how it's done in America.
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
Well of course you could grab a pre-built piece of hardware and mod it slightly to cover a specific purpose. I was referring to actually building a clock from resistors, capacitors, a timing chip, etc. THAT would be pretty involved, not that I think this kid did so, his skills seem limited to taking spare hardware and moding it, which in and of itself is a pretty good learning experience.
The stuff they did back in high school today would have gotten them killed and Apple would just be fruit.
'"Update at 11:20 a.m. Wednesday: At a press conference this morning, Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for bringing "a hoax bomb" to school -- and not a clock, as Mohamed said he repeatedly told his teachers.
But, Boyd said, "we are confident it's not an explosive device" intended to cause "alarm." Rather, he said, officers determined it was "a hoax bomb" and a "naive accident."
As a result, he said, no charges will be filed against Ahmed, and "the case is considered closed."'
What could the definition of a "hoax bomb" be, if there is one, that does not include intent to cause alarm?
Let this be a lesson to all school kids: bring a gun instead, since you will have explicit constitutional protections.
The kid built a device that did it's job (alarm, which is supposed to alarm people). How the teachers/police/community responded to that was pretty stupid.
But it goes to show:
don't mess with Texas.... cause it already messed up enough!
Former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidiate Hillary Clinton joined the tidal wave of tweets supporting Mohamed Ahmed after his arrest Monday for bringing a homemade digital clock to school.
"Assumptions and fear don't keep us safe -- they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep building," Clinton's tweet read.
Hillary Clinton, in the 2008 democratic primary race, circulated pictures of Barack Obama in "Muslim" (actually African) clothing, in order to feed into the false narrative that Barack Obama was a secret Muslim. Hillary Clinton knows all about fears and assumptions, especially when it comes to Muslim stereotypes.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/feb/25/barackobama.hillaryclinton
Clinton trying to take the high ground, when she is one of the worst offenders, is her modus operandi. I don't think I would necessarily like a president Trump (or any of the current republican field) either, but a President Hillary Clinton is a pretty horrendous outcome in my mind.
If this school is typical, perhaps there's a reason the students fixate on their phones rather than the class.
Shouldn't he be praised for his inventiveness not punished because the masses of uninformed fearful sheep mistook his creativity for malice. "Flowers are red young man, green leaves are green. ..." Harry Chapin
We want kids to learn STEM.
The kid brought in a neat, safe STEM project expecting impress the teachers.
He repeatidly told them what it was, and any one with reasonable experience should be able to see for themselves that it was just electronics.
The school which is supposed to be supporting Stem, instead is ignorant to the point of being afraid of Stem.
The is gross incompetence.
To make matter worse, the school, then called the police, which started to figure out how to get the kid to confess to what he has not done. Eventually they figured out that there was no danger and things got better.
Then to make matters worse, after sorting out what actually happened, the principal sent out a letter indicating that the kid had violated the Student code of conduct for prohibited electronic devices. From looking at this code (http://www.irvingisd.net/Domain/1454), it appears that he did not violate anything in the prohibited device list and in fact was doing something constructive towards education. Perhaps to save face, the principal misrepresented the facts after the he should have been informed of his ignorance.
Somehow, we need to reconcile the country's strategic need for a technically competent population with our school systems' seeming desire to move us in the opposite direction. We need to do it quick before we loose the ability to do it at all.
that is all.
People watch those stupid cop shows that have bombs with big led numbers ticking where the hero cop disarms it just as it hits 1 second to go.
And the kid is named Ahmed Mohamed.
And this was in Texas. The poor kid is lucky he wasn't gunned by the cops or locals screaming "Yee haw!"
My subject line was hashtag istandwithahmed , but my previous message is now no subject line. Soooo.....
#istandwithahmed
That is all.
I don't blame the kid for the absolutely over-the-top reaction by the supposedly smarter adults. But, frankly, if I were Muslim and named Ahmed Mohamed and living in Texas, I'm not sure I would consider constructing anything involving wires, battery and timer and bringing it to school. Sure, in a perfect world he SHOULD have been able to without incident, but 14 is old enough to understand the social climate and the danger of unnecessarily scaring the ignorant yahoos.
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
A student whom may have had a bright future as a prominent electrical engineer now sits at home suspended due to a schools over reaction to his science experiment. This student was sent to juvenile detention in probably the most zealous overreaction to date.
Maybe it's time that these idiots decided. A pencil box is probably the worst choice for a bomb I've ever heard of. You could easily disguise a much larger bomb in common tools used by students and never have anyone notice it. Anyone care to list potential suspects. When I see this I see the billboard: Schools are now anti-DIY. Maybe this is just another letter in the writing on the wall. Maybe this is part of the reason our schools are laughed at by the rest of the world.
Texas, where you can open carry.
If he had said it's a GLOCK, not a CLOCK, that would have been ok, because GUNS are OK, but not an electronic device to tell time.
Oh, a device with bullets meant to kill people? That's fine, good kid, patriot, 'Murica!
versus
Oh my ghod! a device with a light up display! Terrorist! Heathen! Run for the hills, the Terrists have come to rape us, like Trump sez!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Don't for get the Chamber of Commerce; if you own or manage a business, why not let them know by posting on their Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/irvingchamber) or twitter feed (https://twitter.com/IrvingChamber) how this affects your perception of Irving Texas as a place to do business.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
snatching up this story, wag the dog...
It's possible you are right. The sensationalism around this story is a strong signal that we're not getting the real picture.
For example, since the school apparently was not evacuated, then there is no evidence that they ever felt he actually had a bomb. If that's so, then the reaction is not to a bomb, but possibly to his behavior.
Was it in ignorance? Was it justified? For the general public, there is no way of knowing, and likely will never be. So what can you say? There is no story here, just screaming.
I wish people would ignore the garbage news.
Clocks are dangerous devices because they measure time, and time is the one thing that will eventually kill us all.
If he was the Captain of the Football team, he wouldn't even be running laps after practise for doing what Amed was falsely accused of doing.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
He was a Covert Secret Operative of the Jade Helm invasion..
Seriously Texas should secede and just be its own delusional country...
When they outlaw clocks, only outlaws will be on time.
(a quote I came across here.)
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
1. The authorities bust a good muslim kid for having something that looks like a bomb
2. Kid gets arrested, fingerprinted, interrogated, pressured
3. Kid gets pissed off with authority
4. As an adult he realizes his hatred for authority and creates a real bomb in retaliation
5. Authorities say... see we knew what he was going to become
6. Authorities profit...
Insert signature here...
He’s vowed never to take an invention to school again.
Now he won't be able to show off/share his work to find motivation and meaning and inspire others....
Teachers get jealous too. I know I had my share if that.
Or... while we're stereotyping...
If the kid's name were:
Bryce Morgan - hey, cool clock, Bryce!
Lee Chan - hey, and it's a supercomputer too! Great job, Lee!
Deepak Chandran - nice clock, Deepak. And it tells time in all of the time zones.
Christine Rhodes - wow, girls can do electronics?
Jose Hernandez - where'd you get that clock, Jose? Is that really yours?
Omari Washington - why do you need a clock? It's not like you got a job or anything.
Bobby Joe Ray Tucker - I bet that looks good in your trailer, Bobby Joe Ray.
Mark Zuckerberg - great clock, Mark! Here's $100 million.
There was another social media firestorm about school administration stupidity a while back... A kid wrote a story about a zombie invasion for an English class assignment, someone thought he was writing about shooting up the school, massive overreaction, what a bunch of idiots traumatizing this poor kid for no reason...
Then, much latter, it turned out that very little in the story as blasted around social media had any factual basis. It was not a story. There was no English class assignment. He actually had tried to recruit accomplices. There actually was reason to be alarmed.
Now, I have no idea whatsoever if there was any legitimate reason for anything that happened here. Clearly, they knew it wasn't actually a bomb, but did the kid jokingly say "Oh, yeah, it's a bomb, ha ha ha"? No idea. I can easily imaging school administration stupidity on the level portrayed in the story as it's being told by the kid, his family, and his lawyer. But like in the other case, the other side is seriously limited in what they can say. When everything comes out, this may end up being as big an embarrassment for the people who go flying off the handle over some social media flurry as the previous case was.
From the article: “We live in an age where you can’t take things like that to school,” he said. “Of course we’ve seen across our country horrific things happen, so we have to err on the side of caution.” said Chief Larry Boyd
I have trouble with the chief's justifications for stating that a kid "can't" take an electronics project to school? Can't?
Ignorance isn't a good enough excuse for mistaking an electronics project for a bomb. That's all on the school board and the police.
Idiots.
Cheers, Glen
Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.
more at #IStandWithAhmed
Thanks to the US education establishment, there's a millionaire made every day... usually via lawsuits. I'd say this young man won't need to worry about college debt.
This is part of the story, although it may be hard to get a texas story to agree that cops shouldn't have been suspicious. You can certainly try, though.
First priority: make sure kid doesn't go to Juvee. Big difference between if he was actually calling it a bomb or using it as a hoax device or if he just built it, so be sure. Get attorney, get good public relations guy, get stories in paper, get stories in some religious and educational magazines and blogs, etc... Get story out there and make DA and school board and maybe governor feel pressure for "science while muslim" and the like.
Useful side-effect: If your kid really is bright and you can pull him through the trauma, you can likely spin this into a great college essay that significantly boosts his chances of getting into a great college.
Everyone get on Amazon and find a cheap clock with free prime shipping. Send it there.
Irving High School
900 N O Connor Rd
Irving, TX 75061
your numbers are laughably wrong. or, they would be laughable, if they weren't so horribly racist.
if there were "literally millions" of radical muslims that wanted to kill you, we would all be totally fucked. thankfully, the ACTUAL number of radical terrorists is incredibly low, as can be seen by the fact that actual terrorist attacks are virtually nonexistant. a statistical blip. you are far more likely to die from a lightning strike.
The local Makerspace and local amateur radio club should offer him a free year of membership.
That was me in 1975 onward through high school. I used to cut or etch my own circuit boards, and made everything from (yes) digital clocks to power supplies to radio receivers. The fact that 95 IQ cops and brain dead school administrators can ruin a bright child's life just infuriates me. Stick a fork in it, 'Murica, you're dead.
Well it's a good way for the kid to learn the dangers of cargo cult programming. Not only have you included redundant, inefficient, or unneeded components, but you have given the appearance of being a terrorist.
Next time start your project from first principles and everything will be fine.
The "bomb" is pictured here, as part of a Reuters story that the kid has won a personal invitation from President Barack Obama on Wednesday to attend an astronomy night at the White House.
The report goes on to say "Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg also invited the teenager to drop by his California-based company. "Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed," he wrote on his Facebook page.
I maintain that he shortly will be on the circuit of morning news shows. Congrats, kid, you're a star. Don't blow it.
From the report:
The incident has launched a social media campaign called #IStandWithAhmed, which was the No. 1 trending topic in the United States on Twitter on Wednesday with about 600,000 tweets, many critical of the school district and police.
"My hobby is to invent stuff," Mohamed told the Dallas Morning News in a video it posted online.
He told the newspaper he enjoys robotics and was looking to continue his interests as he started high school so he showed the clock, which had a digital display and a circuit board, to a teacher. The teacher notified officials.
"They took me to a room filled with five officers," Mohamed told the Morning News.
A spokeswoman for the Irving Independent School District said at a news conference that school officials could not discuss the matter to protect the student's privacy. Police said no charges have been filed and they considered the case closed.
Mohamed was handcuffed and taken to a detention center where he was fingerprinted and had mug shots taken. He was freed when his parents came for him.
Mohamed has been suspended from school, the Morning News said.
Police said the device was in a case and could be mistaken for a bomb. Police spokesman James McLellan said Mohamed's religion had nothing to do with their response.
Two school police officers initially questioned the student and he told them he had built a clock. He did not offer further explanation, McLellan said.
"He didn't explain properly what it was and they felt compelled to arrest him," McLellan said.
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
So let me get this straight, a kid brings a metal case to school and when he pops it open there are wires and a big LED clock inside it, and you guys find it strange that people are freaked out by it?
If your name is Ahmed Mohamed, do yourself a favor and get as far away from Texas (or any states in the redneck band) as possible. No guarantees, but you might be a little more accepted in the northwest.
Islam has made its bed and must sleep therein. It has been that way since the start. Only after Theodosius made Christianity the official cult did it become problematic.
If he was into religion, all the new atheists would call him a terrorist. Instead he got into science, so the new atheists called him a terrorist.
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Actually he brought it in to show his Engineering instructor, who advised him not to show it to other teachers. Unfortunately the alarm went off during English and he was arrested for it, Coerced into signing a written statement, Perp walked through the school, interrogated without his parents or consul present. There is a saying, "When elephants fight, the mice get trampled", it's hard to tell if this is colateral damage from the fight between the mayor Beth van Duyne and a local Mosque over it's Shariah Tribunal, or a key actor.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
If his name was John Smith nobody would have over-reacted in such an absurd manner.
an ignorant bigoted coward that expects some kid to suffer for your shame.
will this kid join the cool clocks clan ?
They knew damn well it was not a bomb unless they are so dumb that they have no business teaching children. Absolute bullshit.
Actually, the police are now saying that they knew it was not a real bomb all along. Apparently the new story line is that they detained him for making a fake bomb, if you can believe that. I'm sure the story will change again soon, since the only thing that was ever going to explode here was the story itself.
First wave feminism did not hate men. First wave feminism had some legitimate gripes. They wanted the ability to have a careers which were not available to them. They still had trouble voting and getting into education. Real issues and real discrimination, just like other minorities had (but not as extreme).
Removing men from Universities took about 30 years, and most of that was not because women really wanted it (in general terms). Certain political groups wanted it, so ensured that certain people made and retained specific positions. You really can't be ignorant enough to believe that the Universities came up with all the "studies" that are still being used today to maintain the "Rape Culture" propaganda do you? Remember that the Government uses the same exact number when Politicians are giving speeches.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Amazing how many people credit this kid with "building" this clock, and the outrage is fall down laughable - I guarantee this is a political stunt or just plain carelessness on the kid's behalf. Let's see why:
Take a look at what readers are shown in picture #2 in the Dallas News story.
In the picture, there's a briefcase that contains what may look like a clock that a GENIUS put together - fancy circuit boards and wires - wow!!!!
But as an electronics hobbyist, I can tell you that what you're seeing in this brief case are the raw, unmodified (and slightly mangled) internals of a 15 to 20 dollar Jumbo LED alarm clock that you would find for sale at your local Walmart:
1. A jumbo four digit LED fixed to the inside of the lid of a small brief case
2. Gray wide-ribbon flatflex cable connects the LED to the main board that contains the LED display driver and clock integrated circuit
3. 9-volt back-up battery cable extends unconnected to the left (used to keep time during power outages, digits remain off on display, time is kept only internally)
4. A smaller flatflex ribbon connects a more slender circuit board that contains the set-time buttons, snooze button, alarm on-off switch, etc.
5. The cube shaped component sitting in the middle of the briefcase is the isolation transformer that provides the mains power 120V cord.
As a kid once myself, I've taken many of these same kinds of alarm clocks apart, and know these components like the back of my hand.
The alarm clock that this kid stuffed into a brief case isn't even modified to run off battery power - this is a 10 minute "project" period. Now, I'd give him more credit for adding battery power support, which is actually harder than it may seem since this type of clock keeps time based on the 60hz AC mains power frequency. So, an inverter would be necessary to allow this clock circuit and display to fully run off battery power alone.
The point here is simply that this looks exactly like what I, as a kid might have done, if I wanted to show off to my friends that maybe I built something that would make me look cool - and might result in this:
> At a joint press conference with Irving ISD, Chief Larry Boyd said the device — confiscated by an English teacher despite the teen’s insistence that it was a clock — was “certainly suspicious in nature.”
Fortunately for me, I thought ideas like that through by considering what other people might think, and it also helped that I didn't have a politically motivated father that might have coerced me to do such a thing knowing how foolish it could make the "natives" (re: EVIL WHITE PEOPLE) look.
So yeah - wow, shame on that ENGLISH teacher for trying to look out for her kids, OMGGGG!!!
4 cops and not one of them shot him? he's lucky!
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
is.
Not at this school, obviously, but still.
Is america employing proper idiot level thickos to the eductation system or what? I get the impression that teachers are supposed to be rational, educated people. If a kid brought in a clock I'd assume it wouldn't cause a bomb scare. I'd give the kid a pat on the back and an arduino to mess with.
In the UK, we're about to give every 11 year old a 'computer'. Basically it's a bit like an arduino with 25 red LED's on it in a 5x5 matrix. EVERY child in the country will be given one for free. I'm looking forward to what they come up with, but a bomb scare won't be on that list of expectations.
What are teachers on in the US? It boggles the mind.
You are accusing the first wave feminists of doing exactly what countless rich white men did, many of those hold and held public office.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
So you have the name "Ahmed Mohamed" and make something that looks like a bomb and then brought it to schoo.
Is this kid friggin stupid or what?
Is that the clock stopped at "007" and a beeper sounded. This is what caused the teacher to become worried.
Look. It isn't the kids fault and it isn't the teachers fault.
QUIT BLAIMING THE TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION. THEY DID NOTHING WRONG!!!!!
Remember the quote: "Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."
It just so happens that in the recent past, some Muslims decided to crash planes into the Twin Towers. Some Muslims have blown up themselves and others with suicide bombs. This is on the news quite often. It is real. It is factual history. Guess what these teachers and school administrators have learned from the past.
So while, no, we all agree this is not the kids fault. Stop bashing the teachers and the administration. It is not their fault either. Based on factual history, not just on racial profiling, if a Muslim with a briefcase has parts that might tick, the suicide bomb possibility is going to come up.
Everyone is blaming the school administration for being idiots. Do you expect teachers to be technical hardware and bomb experts? Seriously? Many Computer Science graduates have never looked inside a computer and have no idea what technical parts look like. You think a High School English teacher should recognize the equipment and what it is used for? Also it is a clock. Even if they do recognize it as such. Bombs use clocks!
The blame for this lies with the Muslim suicide bombers who are real. They really cause terror. They really exist. It is they who caused this kid's bad day. The teacher might have over-reacted, sure. But it is the real life the Muslim suicide bombers actions that led to the teachers and the administrations over reaction.
ZERO TOLERANCE!!!!!!!!!
Perhaps teachers need to sit down and realize that "zero tolerance" really means "intolerance" but it seems that what they are really aiming for is "irrational". Kids arrested for drawing on desks, drawing pictures of guns, shaping their fingers like a gun...etc. Sheesh my generation would not have made it two weeks into school without being locked in maximum security prisons.
Well congratulations. If this technical minded little boy ends up being processed as a "potential terrorist" you can bet your ass he WILL end up disliking the government that did this to him. Thus America creates another terrorist. Maybe that's the whole idea, I don't know anymore.
The reason behind this is simple if we just look for it. THEY are doing everything they can to create more criminals, and want and need to make us all criminals, the prison system in the USA is for profit! THEY have a need to fill those beds, and prison cells. well, let me see, duh. not enough criminals = emtpy cells = less profit!!! you figure it out with the equation i supplied. you then have the answer, sad but still very much true! When people wake up, and when people have had enough, then this will stop! until then, it will continue and get much worse!
Did the school evacuate and call the bomb squad when they had a suspected bomb in the building? I would assume that they have a written policy for his.
Most people can not deal with reality as it is, and reside in their little delusions inside their own head.
The USA you thought you knew is not merely long gone - it never existed.
The ignorant, the fearful, the superstitious - they run the show. And Gawd help you if you encounter their fear and deceit and wrath.
You would think these red-staters would get tired of making fool of themselves.
None of the authorities ever thought Ahmed Mohahamed's clock project was a bomb. They just wanted to humiliate a little Muslim, African boy. ...INSTEAD...
The proof is obvious:
-- They didn't evacuate the school (like authorities are supposed to do when they think there's a bomb).
-- They didn't call a bomb squad (like authorities are supposed to do when they think there's a bomb).
-- They didn't get as far away from him or the clock as possible (like any sane person who thinks they're near a bomb would do)
-- They put Ahmed and the clock in the school office
-- Then they waited with him for the police to arrive.
-- Then they put the clock in the same car as the police.
-- Then they took pictures of it.
None of the authorities ever thought Ahmed Mohahamed's clock project was a bomb. The terror monger authorities just wanted to humiliate a little Muslim, African boy in order to spread public fear and racist hatred. The involved authorities should all be fired and permanently removed from the public payroll, if not for their blatant fraud, then for their clearly negligent incompetence.
any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a bomb.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
or they would have evacuated the school and sent in the bomb-squad. They knew it wasn't a bomb the entire time.
exactly. at what point did the bomb disposal squad arrive? which of the cops wore their bombproof armor when inspecting the device? what the hell?
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
What if this had been what they panicked about and the teacher said nothing? In recent news stories the school district is asking the parents to allow the release of all the of the students records because he is a minor and the school can't do it. The parents will not allow it. What are they hiding?