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Obama Invites Texas Teen To White House After "Bomb" Clock Incident At School
The Grim Reefer writes: In a followup to this morning's story about the arrest of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed for bringing a homemade clock to school that was mistaken for a bomb, President Obama has invited the teen to the White House via Twitter. The President tweeted: "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." The Irving Independent School District in Irving, Texas sent an email to parents about the incident asking students to: "immediately report any suspicious items and / or suspicious behavior."
will the tsa / SS let him take the device in?
Now, if there is any good chance to smuggle a bomb into the white house, this is it.
Where's the gofundme? After being punished so badly for doing everything right, I think the wealthier geeks in the world could have 4 years of college paid for in a few days.
From the original story, the kid vowed... note, *VOWED*... to never bring another invention to school again.
Admittedly the vow was probably made prematurely, but people who are of the sort to make vows in the first place are not the sort to break them simply because their circumstances might change.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
So let me get this straight, this kid is being arrested and Trump is leading the polls?
They would not let him call his father when the police questioned him. This is a direct violation of his and his parents rights. It's illegal to question a minor without their guardian present. I really hope everyone is telling their kids out there to refuse to answer questions in such a situation without their parents present.
The police department and school district are going to be paying his family some serious money once the lawsuits are filed. I dare say he won the lottery with this highly illegal and stupid treatment.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/99/04/25/1438249/voices-from-the-hellmouth
/thread
nerd rage is the funniest rage.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Not because I don't want them to learn about evolution
Not because I think Jeebuz thinks the road to hell is paved with Global warming or that that allow gay kids in school.
It would be because School administrators are stupid reactionary fuckwads who can't tell the difference between a circuit board and an IED, because little children get arrested for sexual assault for kissing another child, because now that police are patrolling the schools, causing little kids getting arrested for resisting arrest and assault felonies and a million other stupid things.
You cannot build intelligent adults from the hopelessly stupid school teachers and administrators who apparently orgasm when they destroy a child's future.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Sure. I'm "sensitive to this issue" because I saw the same sort of stupid abuse of authority, albeit in a minor way. Abuse of authority should get pushback. People make mistakes, and that's fine, but the people who screwed this up should have been told to knock it off before the kid was disciplined.
It should have ended almost immediately. Teacher suspects a bomb, someone competent determines it's a clock, everyone goes about their business, parents get a courtesy call to let them know what happened.
As the last linked article points out, rather than being contrite about the unwarranted treatment of Akmed Mohamed, the Irving Independent School District is doubling down. In addition to reporting "suspicious" activity (mentioned in TFS) the letter from Principal Daniel Cummings to parents included this gem:
I recommend using this opportunity to talk with your child about the Student Code of Conduct and specifically not bringing items to school that are prohibited.
Nice posturing. So, was the item he brought to school actually prohibited? Or is this just innuendo?
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
George W. Bush has been out of office for nearly seven years. Time to let go of the hate and move on.
I bet every kid who ever took an electronics class in high-school made a digital clock. Why is it that nobody including teachers immediately thought OMG Terrorists!! back then? Because we became a nation of pussies. Scared of everything except the thing we should fear the most..
I just wish they handled this privately with the parents
You're talking as if he still did something wrong.
He made a "my first EE project" - something he should have been praised for. But instead even the teacher he initially showed it to (a geek like the rest of us) basically said "hide it."
The problem with this is that none of the adults involved in this stupidity outside of the parents and Obama, acted like adults.
And he's right in declaring that he won't bring his own projects to school anymore. They don't deserve to see creativity out of this kid. Because they're douchebags, every last one of them at that school district.
He should GTFO of that school and get home schooled. Better yet, the whole family should get out of Texas and move to Cambridge MA. And the school district should pay for it.
--
BMO
Its just sad that that payout is gonna come from the taxpayer, NOT the idiots who perpetrated this. Theres a large number of people involved with this that should be behind bars, and have their pay garnished for the rest of their life to pay this kid for this...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Yes. Have we already forgotten the Boston lightbright scare?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare
No, literally, good move Obama. Doesn't make up for all the other embarrassments & injustices, and there are many. But at least there's a line... at least being arrested for dumb shit, just this once, gets you a presidential apology. "I made a clock." "We think it's a bomb. Is it a bomb?" "No." "We think you wanted us to think it was a bomb." "But it's patently not a bomb." "Don't bother telling us it's not a bomb... that's exactly what you want us to think!" "I do want you to think that!" "Well then why did you build this bomb-looking bomb then?"
The Irving Independent School District in Irving, Texas sent an email to parents about the incident asking students to: "immediately report any suspicious items and / or suspicious behavior."
"Hello, Office? I'd like to report that the principle is acting more moronic than normal....I think he's a replicant."
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
You seem to be insinuating that there was anything even slightly wrong with what Ahmed did (by claiming that he "needs guidance" or that it needed to be "handled," even privately). Let me assure you that there is not. Ahmed is totally and completely innocent of even the appearance of wrongdoing, and having the school officials apply any sort of "handling" or "guidance" (let alone the "threats" and "punishment" that actually happened!) would be wrong on their part.
This is not a situation where a student should be admonished "hey, that's too much like a bomb; don't do it again." This is a situation where a student should be praised that "hey, that's a cool project; keep up the good work!" What we have here is a model student who did everything right, but whose reward for that excellence was to be punished for it by bigoted, paranoid imbeciles. He should not have been arrested. He should not even have been "handled" or "guided!" He should have been celebrated!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Its just sad that that payout is gonna come from the taxpayer, NOT the idiots who perpetrated this.
Good. Because the part of the school that sets policy is the fucking school committee, elected by the public.
Elect morons to the school committee which does important things like set the budget and hire administration and you get stupid policies like this.
Stupid should hurt.
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BMO
Only because chemistry class was that afternoon.
There has been, eh?
Then why has this last year had FEWER police deaths by shooting than any others for years?
Why, in fact, has Obama's presidency had fewer police deaths than his predecessors since the 1970s?
What kind of war is it, that is being done so ineffectually?
The real, legitimate president who actually won the election invented the internet.
Also, he invented the strategy of applying different rules in each voting precinct in order to exclude voters in precincts that favored your opponent.
There's stupidity, there's arrogance, and there's stuff you should really be escorted out of public service for...
I hope somebody gets fired out of this... No apologies...
Or on the other hand I look forward to 2-3 days of lame attempts to somehow justify this...
Shall see...
"Don't fear death... fear not living..." -me
You don't handcuff and perp walk kids for a 'misunderstanding'. Everything up to that point was fine (except for the little bit of forgetting to move people out of harm's way should this have been an actual weapon).
The subsequent arrest and persecution of the kid is flat out paranoid insanity.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
He needs to take his toy home and grow up a bit...
Maybe so, but nowhere near as much as the faculty and cops need to grow up. They didn't even let him contact his family before questioning, and you're making excuses for them.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The war is being waged with cell phone cameras and is going very well.
The police have resorted to putting cameras on themselves to defend. Not realizing that was the desired outcome. Morons that they are.
They are not primarily being killed, they are being denied their right to kill with impunity.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
there is no war on police.
merely a growing movement that wants them held accountable for when they fuck up (particularly if someone gets hurt/killed as a result), and a growing suspicion that they have been covering up past fuckups by writing false reports, as several have been caught doing in recent news.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Absolutely not.
He wasn't doing anything dangerous looking. People overreacted. Fine, I can forgive that. Go ahead and determine that the kid didn't have a bomb, apologize for the misunderstanding, and make an end of it. That didn't happen. The kid was interrogated, arrested, fingerprinted, suspended for 3 days, and might be charged with an actual crime, and he did nothing wrong.
It's time to grow up and accept that punishing people who didn't do anything wrong is never acceptable.
The idea that the school suffers if this child does not display creativity troubles me. The school does not suffer either way, the only one who suffers is the child. The immediate lesson he has learned is that he must keep his head down and be just like every one else. Creativity will be punished.
That is a hell of a thing to teach a child.
Way to go
In fact, it wasn't a dangerous-looking thing. If it was, the teacher would not have confiscated it, put it in a desk drawer, and continued teaching the class. If it had actually scared the blank out of the teacher, the teacher would have left it where it was, gotten the school evacuated, and had the bomb squad handle it.
People like the teachers and police officers need to learn what appropriate behavior is. The behavior was inappropriate no matter what they thought.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
In which case you must be appalled at the teacher's actions, which were to confiscate the device, put it in a desk drawer, and continue teaching the class. If it could have been a bomb, the teacher was endangering the life of everyone in the classroom.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Obama did the right thing, IMO. The people who did this need to be embarrassed, personally.
Inviting the kid to the White House immediately shows how fucked up the school district is.
Were I president, I would have done it even if I had to pay out of pocket.
--
BMO
The idea that the school suffers if this child does not display creativity troubles me. The school does not suffer either way, the only one who suffers is the child. The immediate lesson he has learned is that he must keep his head down and be just like every one else. Creativity will be punished.
That is a hell of a thing to teach a child.
Way to go
It's not just the child. See it repeated over and over again. The frequency with which incidents like this happen mean that the upcoming generation is going to have all the initiative beaten out of it. From "Can Do!" to "Don't Dare!" in under a century.
Cell phones can be used as bomb triggers.
Cell phones look like cell phones which can be used as bomb triggers.
Cell phones sometimes go off in class and make weird sounds, ie. ring tones.
Do you know what I expect to happen? The teacher asking the owner of the phone to turn it off.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
This kid built, knowingly or not, an actual triggering device out of an alarm clock.
No he didn't.
He built a clock. A clock is not the same as a bomb trigger. If you keep on insisting it is, then literally every watch and phone the kids are wearing/carrying is a potential bomb trigger.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Whats the count of killed officers so far this year?
21?
Something like that?
Meanwhile the number of citizens killed by police so far this year is more than 500.
Again: there is no war on police.
And if there is, it is a pittance compared to the War being waged by police upon the citizenry.
(and no i dont actually believe that 'that' war exists either)
read, and become educated. you could surely use it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com...
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
it's been more than seven yet idiots still like to use that as an excuse to screw over people like this kid.
Zero tolerance policy
Zero tolerance of what, precisely? I though zero tolerance was meant to be zero tolerance of breaking rules. Not zero tolerance of random shit made up on the spot by mad people.
Last I checked, clocks weren't against the school rules.
Plus who builds a two foot by two foot portable clock that looks like a bomb?
It only looks like a bomb because oooh scary circuit boards!!1111one1!oneONE1!
SJW n. One who posts facts.
It's washington's terrorism paranoia (or convenient excuse to clobber liberty) that created this situation in the first place, and now the president is trying to make up for it with some publicity stunt? A solution fixes the problem. It does not brush it under the rug and hopes it goes away.
With your logic, every science fair in every school in the whole U.S. should end in arrests and threats to prosecute for "making a hoax bomb", right?
What should the adults in a position of authority do differently?
Be brave and don't panic
Been watching a few too many movies... Next you'll say that bombs are identifiable by the blinking red light.
I don't know if you noticed, but there's been a war on law enforcement recently.
Seems I missed it, since the number of police officers being killed is 13% lower than last year. And if you figure that there are around 765,000 sworn police officers at the state and local level and, so far this year, there are about 26 police officers killed (or about 0.003%), it's not much of a war.
Amazon sells bomb triggers. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb...
No, kids should learn if they did something wrong they should know when to detect an illegal interrogation, and then tell them right away where all the other evidence is so that when the fruits of that interrogation get thrown out, all the evidence will too.
Oh, wait, maybe that was a different moral lesson.
I grew up on both sides of the tracks.
Sorry to poke holes in your knee-jerk Obama hating, but President Obama said very early in this whole thing that it is a teachable moment and that Ahmed's teachers failed him.
Don't let reality interfere with your hating-points, Jr.
There were lots of terrorists involved in this incident. The terrified child vowed never to bring another invention to school.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
But admit that this device, while not an explosive, was EXACTLY the same as a bomb trigger.
This device was not the same as a bomb trigger. One obvious difference is that a bomb trigger is attached to a bomb. If it's not attached to a bomb, then it's not a bomb trigger. Just like the fact that the cell phone in your pocket is not a bomb trigger until you decide to attach it to a bomb. Once you attach your cell phone to a bomb, then instead of being a cell phone it's a bomb trigger. A clock is not a bomb trigger, it's a clock.
This kid built, knowingly or not, an actual triggering device out of an alarm clock.
A "triggering device" is also not a bomb trigger. Note the distinct lack of a bomb to trigger.
We cannot loose sight of what this device COULD have been used for
Your car can be used to intentionally strike and kill a person. Should you be allowed to drive it? What about the knives in your kitchen? Do you perhaps own any guns? I hope you don't use acid to help maintain a pool, and god help you if you fertilize your lawn.
This wasn't just an innocent shop class project the kid says he intended it to be
Actually, yeah, it was. Would you be fine if he 3D-printed some fancy plastic case so that you couldn't see the wires, would that calm your heart rate and make your palms stop sweating? Because that's the only real difference between what he built and what sits on your nightstand.
until the authorities could firmly establish what his intent was their actions where justified.
They could have firmly established his intentions by talking to his electrical engineering teacher and hearing that the kid showed the clock to the teacher. It would have been pretty obvious what his intentions were: to build a clock and show his EE teacher. They weren't interested in that though, they had a narrative that they wanted to reinforce and only had the evidence that he possessed something that had wires in it, his skin is brown, and he's Muslim. So instead of looking for actual evidence and intent, they just decided to arrest him. It's the lazy way to go, which is something that cops are pretty good at.
That some stupid teacher shoved the thing into a desk drawer, not withstanding.
Seriously. Obviously a clock goes on the desk, not in it.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Would you be fine if he 3D-printed some fancy plastic case so that you couldn't see the wires, would that calm your heart rate and make your palms stop sweating? Because that's the only real difference between what he built and what sits on your nightstand.
That's more true than you may realize. The clock that he "built" is just the internals of an alarm clock mounted in what looks like a fancy school supplies box that resembles a small metal briefcase. (I disassembled everything when I was his age too.)
The whole situation reminds me of when I was in 6th grade and, while doing dumb shit during free time, I created a small "don't kick me" sign, the opposite of a "kick me" sign, and in an effort to add more creativity, I decided that putting "lick me" on the other side was appropriate as it rhymed and seemed slightly affectionate in the sense of how cute little puppies like to lick people, and so it built upon the "opposite of 'kick me'" theme. I then decided to show the result of my efforts to a teacher, who didn't seem too amused but didn't say much about it. When I tried to retrieve the note and return to my desk, she said "no, I'll hang on to it" and kept it. So I thought "well, whatever" as I certainly wasn't all that attached to it, but I was certainly confused as she didn't seem impressed by it and so I had no idea why she wanted to keep it either. The next day I found myself in trouble for having created the note, and eventually ended up with some sort of punishment for having created it (though I don't recall what the punishment was, just that it was less serious than a detention), and yet throughout the whole process I had absolutely no idea why anyone took any offense to what I had done. It wasn't until a year or two later that I realized that she must have assumed "lick me" to be some sort of sexual reference, and that no one wanted to explain to me what I had done because they just assumed I knew what I had done and that I was simply trying to pretend as if I was ignorant of it to avoid punishment.
So with that in mind, here's my hypothesis of what happened to this kid:
He apparently likes to take apart electronics, as evidenced by the many photos of him in articles holding a mess of electronics internals. So after disassembling an alarm clock, he decides he wants to build a clock by mounting the components into a box of some sort. He has this cool little school supplies box that resembles a little metal briefcase, and so he mounts the components into it. He then decides to show it to people at school, and so he takes it to school, and during free time in English class when everyone is talking to their friends, he pulls it out and plugs it in to show his friends. The alarm clock noises catch the attention of a teacher who sees it and realizes it resembles a movie prop bomb, and concludes that he has created a hoax bomb. Indeed, if it made the typical alarm clock buzzing noise, it may have caused a minor amount of panic in the classroom when doing so, and this may have helped her to conclude that the purpose of the device was that it was supposed to be a hoax bomb, one which simply created noise rather than an explosion. (Honestly, that totally sounds like something I would have built when I was his age had the idea occurred to me.) So she confiscates it and reports him to the police. Then the police show up and, assuming the kid knows what he has done, they don't bother to explain the problem to him. Instead they just ask questions hoping to get him to confess to it being a hoax bomb, questions like "what is this" and "what is it for" and "why did you make it," to which he responds "it's a clock" and "it keeps time" and "I wanted to make a clock." So they assume he's just too smart to confess to what he has done and arrest him anyway. Then, when their stupidity makes national news, they try to explain themselves by saying "he wouldn't tell us anything about it, he just kept saying 'it's a clock.'," as if he was being elusive, when in rea