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.

Comments

Why government needs to get out of education

[zerofoo]

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.