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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."
Now, if there is any good chance to smuggle a bomb into the white house, this is it.
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.
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.
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.
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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?"
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!
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.
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.
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BMO
I dislike the term "taxpayer" - it implies that there are people who don't pay tax. But everyone who buys anything, let alone earns money, ends up contributing toward government coffers. Even if you've always been completely reliant "on welfare" - a very unusual scenario, relative to the whole population - you're acting as a conduit for money into private hands. The latter will generate wealth by investing that money (hopefully), and that means more tax is paid.
So, it's the people that will pay - all of them.
Now, the government is elected by the people - really, it is! there might be a lot of lobbying going on, but ultimately it's democracy that determines whether corruptible people are elected or not.
The government is responsible for the police force and the school system.
Working backward, the police/school answers to the government answers to the people.
So, who is ultimately responsible for this? The people.
The party responsible is going to end up paying for the damage done.
Cynic as I am, I won't deny when something is working right. And if you go all, "I know a better system of government than a democratic republic!" good luck enforcing it - because the two options are will-of-the-people and force. Even the Objectivist arch-capitalist and the purest of Marxist communists agree that each final system develops out of the consent of thinking people - they just have different ideas on what the choice of people acting in their interests ends up being.
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.
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