# RO: This is totally going to kill Bring Your Clock to School Day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 16, 2015, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454 "2015-09-16T08:35:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/261 "2015-09-18T15:07:54Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Personally, I think hers was a very bad idea. There is no way on earth a school committee of some kind is capable of determining whether the item was a bomb or not. The police SHOULD have been called because they would be the only local authorities with the expertise to figure out if it’s dangerous. > > Unfortunaely, in their zeal to arrest SOMEBODY for SOMETHING, they went way past that and leveled a hoaxing charge, for which (if the story is accurate) they have no evidence whatsoever. …I woulda yelled “_DUCK!_” but I thought you saw it. I dunno, I’ve read pretty much this whole thread. That we live in such fucked up times blows my mind. (At least for four forty-minute periods.) Do the cops think that a group of hackers means machettes are involved? I did [their test today](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=768999) stoned and hungry and still got 90%. I’m not even American. How come the kid hasn’t been invited to Greenwich? Has Whitehurst Luxury Timepieces been in touch with his people? If Ahmed builds a clock and gets to go to NASA, is it because time has something to do with space? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/262 "2015-09-18T15:08:29Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > You had a pretty good rebuttal going until you made this wild leap. If you look at my posting history in the Elections folder you will see that I am solidly on the left. :rolleyes: Because no leftist is ever a racist or bigot. Gotcha. > [@](#): > > the entire South is filled with moronic, reactionary rednecks > … > I see more shades of grey then so many of the binary thinkers I find around me on both the left and right. This is an excellent example of why using your irony meter on the Internet is like using your cooking thermometer on Mt. Kīlauea. You are not the subtle, nuanced thinker you pride yourself on being. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/263 "2015-09-18T15:09:17Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Das racist, yo. > > Except that what people seem to keep ignoring, or intentionally eliding, is that before his English teacher actually reported him for the device, his \*engineering \*teacher warned him not to show it to any other teachers! > > P.S. I take it no one is any longer contesting the characterization of the kid’s father as a “publicity hound” at least? I’m trying to understand how that’s a response to what I posted, but whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/264 "2015-09-18T15:18:01Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Bullshit. > > -Teacher hears beeping, says whats that? > -Kid takes out bunch of wires and says its a clock he made. > -Teacher needs management assistance to determine if this is true or not, but unfortunately the management can’t tell either so they have to ring the police. > -Dumbass on the internet defends them by saying “They aren’t qualified to know what it was”. > > Complete and utter bullshit. “Once it was known to be a clock”, are you for fucking real? Stop defending shitty adults. Yeah, I’m a teacher. Yesterday I pulled a kid aside and told him no harm, no foul, but ixnay on the Hitler jokes, third grader, some people are sensitive to them. I understand about handling kids who may not have a real social awareness of people around them. And I understand the difference between that and a bomb threat. If a kid brought in a digital display with wires attached, yeah, i’d pull the kid aside at the very least and say, “I love your mechanical aptitude [just like I complimented yesterday’s kid on his love of history], but be aware of how other folks might see your clock.” I might mention it to admin, **as a precaution against other folks misunderstanding what he had**. If I had any question about whether he might be planning a hoax with it, I’d mention that to admin. When I discover it in my classroom and the kid tells me it’s a clock, I might have reasonable doubt: maybe he was planning on dropping it off somewhere later as a highly ill-advised prank. I dunno, and the admin is in the best position to determine that. The administrators, however, were able to gather all the information. Nothing in the kid’s actions pointed to a plan to hoax. Everything in his actions pointed to a kid not thinking about how his actions might be misinterpreted. Administration completely screwed up. Now, is it clearly not a bomb? At the point where I can see the digital display, and the motherboard, and the wires, of course it’s clearly not a bomb. The whole thing about explosive devices is that **they contain explosives**. The wires, digital display, etc., are just garnishes. I don’t have to be a bomb expert to notice the lack of anything that can actually explode, any more than I have to be a veterinarian to determine that a leash and a collar are not an attack dog. The concern about whether he was gonna pull a hoax is a legitimate concern, and I don’t fault teachers for kicking that concern upstairs. The concern about whether it was a real bomb? Not legitimate. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/265 "2015-09-18T15:18:35Z")
can someone show where the engineering teacher ‘warned him’ -? exact quotes please. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/266 "2015-09-18T15:20:08Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Some things are just too stupid to address with a straight face. Like people who double down on this point even after everything I posted from the Vox article? But **Morgenstern** , dear: you are not a “thing”. No matter how intellectually challenged you may be, you are a _person_ and don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/267 "2015-09-18T15:22:43Z")
Apparently everyone is still contesting your characterization of the dad, SlackerInc, you cretin. Surprisingly, your argument, “Hey, Vox!” failed to convince anyone. Especially when the Vox article itself had nothing in it supporting your conclusion. You are conflating “doing things” with being a “publicity hound.” Again, you may be bitter because this kid does things, whereas your brilliance led you to punk your sister with your Atari 800. Sorry, but your limitations are no reason to take it out on this kid and his family. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/268 "2015-09-18T15:24:54Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It seems to me that the embarrassment is just perceived by you. Yeah, you’re probably right. My rant really isn’t against Ahmed. I’m just bugged by the combination of [Citizen Ruth](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115906/) and [Queen for a day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_for_a_Day) that elevates any individual who’s story is not fundamentally different from many others across the country but somehow generates a critical mass of “buzz”, into a lottery winner or pariah depending on the whims of the public. For some reason it just doesn’t seem to me to be healthy for us as a society to have our attention an resources to be focused on an individual based primarily on emotional appeal, popularity and luck. In any case I’ll give an unironic “Way to go Ahmed! I wish you the best of luck”, and then shuffle off to go yell at a bunch of kids to get off my lawn. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/269 "2015-09-18T15:25:04Z")
> [@simster](#): > > can someone show where the engineering teacher ‘warned him’ -? exact quotes please. [http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece) > [@](#): > > 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 kept the clock inside his school bag in English class, but the teacher complained when the alarm beeped in the middle of a lesson. Ahmed brought his invention up to show her afterward. So much for “keeping it hidden”. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/270 "2015-09-18T15:29:58Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Now, is it clearly not a bomb? At the point where I can see the digital display, and the motherboard, and the wires, of course it’s clearly not a bomb. The whole thing about explosive devices is that **they contain explosives**. The wires, digital display, etc., are just garnishes. I don’t have to be a bomb expert to notice the lack of anything that can actually explode… The logic here flummoxes me, but it is clearly logic that has been shortcircuited by pants-wetting. 1. Some bombs have timing mechanisms attached to them. 2. No timing mechisms are bombs. The bomb in this case is missing its essential bombiness. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/271 "2015-09-18T15:30:53Z")
Why do you think his engineering teacher warned him? a) He knew that the other teachers, on seeing what Ahmed could do technically, would say, “Yeah, that’s okay, but you’re no SlackerInc, man, he was a REAL genius,” and that’d crush Ahmed’s spirit. b) It was all part of the engineering teacher’s master plan to take over the world, with his trusty minion Ahmed. c) He knew that some of the other teachers were racist idiots, and he didn’t want Ahmed to get into trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/272 "2015-09-18T15:32:23Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Yeah, you’re probably right. My rant really isn’t against Ahmed. I’m just bugged by the combination of [Citizen Ruth](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115906/) and [Queen for a day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_for_a_Day) that elevates any individual who’s story is not fundamentally different from many others across the country but somehow generates a critical mass of “buzz”, into a lottery winner or pariah depending on the whims of the public. > > For some reason it just doesn’t seem to me to be healthy for us as a society to have our attention an resources to be focused on an individual based primarily on emotional appeal, popularity and luck. > > In any case I’ll give an unironic “Way to go Ahmed! I wish you the best of luck”, and then shuffle off to go yell at a bunch of kids to get off my lawn. He is fundamentally different - he was put in handcuffs, sent to detention and suspended from school. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/273 "2015-09-18T15:33:09Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Apparently everyone is still contesting your characterization of the dad, SlackerInc, you cretin. Surprisingly, your argument, “Hey, Vox!” failed to convince anyone. Especially when the Vox article itself had nothing in it supporting your conclusion. It is evident that I gave y’all too much credit for reading comprehension and/or intellectual honesty. BTW, the “cretin” moniker you have bestowed upon me is another sick, sick burn. I am just so very devastated by that characterization. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/274 "2015-09-18T15:38:41Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Why do you think his engineering teacher warned him? > a) He knew that the other teachers, on seeing what Ahmed could do technically, would say, “Yeah, that’s okay, but you’re no SlackerInc, man, he was a REAL genius,” and that’d crush Ahmed’s spirit. > b) It was all part of the engineering teacher’s master plan to take over the world, with his trusty minion Ahmed. > c) He knew that some of the other teachers were racist idiots, and he didn’t want Ahmed to get into trouble. In other words, the putative obviousness of its non-bombness was not so very self-evident after all. And yes: I think the whole plan was to use this publicity stunt to troll a little slice of bigoted, provincial, nativist Red America so as to predictably curry favor with a much larger slice of Blue America. It worked like a charm: Francis Underwood would approve. (Would be interesting to browse the family’s Netflix watching history to see if _House of Cards_ is indeed on there.) ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/275 "2015-09-18T15:43:32Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > [http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece) > > So much for “keeping it hidden”. a) not really a warning - and nothing in Ahmed’s statement that implies the engineering teacher thought it could be construed as a bomb. b) not much of a hoax if you’re showing it on demand. Do you have anything from the Engineering teacher himself? Second hand recount doesn’t count here. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/276 "2015-09-18T15:43:35Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > In other words, the putative obviousness of its non-bombness was not so very self-evident after all. Damn, you really do think you’re smart, don’t you? Bless your heart. No, dummy, the putative obviousness of its non-bombness (the fact that it wasn’t a bomb, if you want to write clearly instead of tying large words onto your dumb sentence like sequins on a turd) is, not to be redundant or anything, self-evident. Explosive devices have explosives. > [@](#): > > And yes: I think the whole plan was to use this publicity stunt to troll a little slice of bigoted, provincial, nativist Red America so as to predictably curry favor with a much larger slice of Blue America. It worked like a charm: Francis Underwood would approve. (Would be interesting to browse the family’s Netflix watching history to see if _House of Cards_ is indeed on there.) Then you think he’s a freakin’ genius. “I know! I’ll troll people with a fake bomb \*\*by telling them it’s not a bomb! That’ll get them!” I mean, for reals? ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/277 "2015-09-18T15:43:58Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > It is evident that I gave y’all too much credit for reading comprehension and/or intellectual honesty. > > BTW, the “cretin” moniker you have bestowed upon me is another sick, sick burn. I am just so very devastated by that characterization. :rolleyes: Just point to one thing in this case that the dad has done to promote himself. Then look up parsimony. Then stop with the 11 dimensional chess arguments. Cretin is not a moniker for you. It is a description, imbecile. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/278 "2015-09-18T15:49:40Z")
> [@simster](#): > > Do you have anything from the Engineering teacher himself? Second hand recount doesn’t count here. This was Ahmed’s _own_ recollection. If that’s not good enough for you, then sorry, no: I don’t have a recording of the conversation to link you to. But given your extremely strict standards of evidence, how do you know any of this happened at all? Does Texas even exist? I’ve never been there. Videotape doesn’t prove anything: it can be faked with CGI. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/279 "2015-09-18T15:51:34Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Cretin is not a moniker for you. It is a description, imbecile. And _my_ description of _you_ is “poopyface”. (Quick, somebody got a fire extinguisher: the sick burns are rampant in this thread.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/280 "2015-09-18T15:55:23Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Yeah, I’m a teacher. Yesterday I pulled a kid aside and told him no harm, no foul, but ixnay on the Hitler jokes, third grader, some people are sensitive to them. I understand about handling kids who may not have a real social awareness of people around them. > > And I understand the difference between that and a bomb threat. > > If a kid brought in a digital display with wires attached, yeah, i’d pull the kid aside at the very least and say, “I love your mechanical aptitude [just like I complimented yesterday’s kid on his love of history], but be aware of how other folks might see your clock.” I might mention it to admin, **as a precaution against other folks misunderstanding what he had**. > > If I had any question about whether he might be planning a hoax with it, I’d mention that to admin. When I discover it in my classroom and the kid tells me it’s a clock, I might have reasonable doubt: maybe he was planning on dropping it off somewhere later as a highly ill-advised prank. I dunno, and the admin is in the best position to determine that. > > The administrators, however, were able to gather all the information. Nothing in the kid’s actions pointed to a plan to hoax. Everything in his actions pointed to a kid not thinking about how his actions might be misinterpreted. Administration completely screwed up. > > Now, is it clearly not a bomb? At the point where I can see the digital display, and the motherboard, and the wires, of course it’s clearly not a bomb. The whole thing about explosive devices is that **they contain explosives**. The wires, digital display, etc., are just garnishes. I don’t have to be a bomb expert to notice the lack of anything that can actually explode, any more than I have to be a veterinarian to determine that a leash and a collar are not an attack dog. > > The concern about whether he was gonna pull a hoax is a legitimate concern, and I don’t fault teachers for kicking that concern upstairs. The concern about whether it was a real bomb? Not legitimate. It’s been a long while since I’ve been in front of a class, but this seems to be the most reasonable thinking I’ve seen. One question I haven’t seen asked is if the Admin called in the engineering teacher (back in the 1960’s we called them the ‘shop’ teachers, I guess they’ve been upgraded) whom he originally showed it too and did he tell them “it’s a clock, the kid is fine, just proud of his building stuff.” > [@SlackerInc](#): > > So much for “keeping it hidden”. Which, as the quoted article noted, he did _until a teacher complained about it and he showed her to explain it._ To borrow a quote from a SF series I like: “…Truly brainless. Not simply stupid. Bar-ain-less. As in: brains of a carrot.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454.md?page=15)