# 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:** 25
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/481 "2015-09-21T16:48:02Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > The important thing is that we all have the chance to say to a kid who thought he did something kind of cool “no, sorry kid, but that thing you were playing with totally sucks and is stupid”. God forbid he actually be encouraged to tinker and learn something. > [@Jophiel](#): > > As I said, it’s some weird petty envy. Maybe their own parents or teachers didn’t give them enough attention or love or something. > > “Look, I made a clock!” > “Fuck you, this is garbage and you’re a liar!” No, that’s not it. I… look, I don’t really want to hitch my wagon to this star, but I feel like he’s getting a free pass because it’s an electronic device, which is why I brought up long division earlier. But let’s try another angle, let’s pretend we hear a story about a kid suspended for creating a picture of a something that looked possibly, but not really like a penis and bringing it in to show his art teacher. The story is sold to us as “teenager suspended for art project by prudish administrators.” But then if we see a picture of this art, and it’s clearly a doodle made on a piece of lined notebook paper from a spiral notebook in about 30 seconds… well, wouldn’t you wonder why he wanted to show off this doodle to his art teacher? Is that actually art that he’s proud of, or was he just cheekishly trying to show penises to his teacher and get away with it? It’s not that I want to tell the kid that his art sucks, it’s just that the suckiness of the art makes me question his motivation. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/482 "2015-09-21T16:49:35Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > He invited him as an act of political solidarity, and that was a good thing to do. He invited him to say “Fuck you” to the asshole bigots who run that Texas school district. He invited him to let him know that not everyone in the country subscribes to the narrow provincialism and anti-intellectualism and sheer stubborn idiocy demonstrated in this case. > > All the other people and groups offering memberships and stuff to Ahmed Mohamed did so for pretty much the same reason: to stand by a kid who was subjected to treatment that is contrary to the values that Americans claim to uphold. And yet Obama never responded to, invited the kid or even mentioned [this case](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/pop-tart-gun_n_3419815.html). Or [this case](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140821/17433328285/students-story-about-shooting-pet-dinosaur-with-gun-ends-suspension-arrest.shtml). All these other people and groups offering memberships and stuff to Ahmed Mohammed didn’t think that suspending a kid for chewing a poptart into some shape or arresting a kid for writing a story about shooting a dinosaur is “contrary to the values that Americans claim to uphold”? ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/483 "2015-09-21T16:51:07Z")
“Pablo, the nose is in the wrong place and you’ve got both eyes on one side of the lady’s head! Why are you _really_ showing me this?” (In response to post 481) ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/484 "2015-09-21T16:53:46Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > He has apparently constructed much more complicated devices in the past. Like a real tech genius. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/485 "2015-09-21T16:54:58Z")
> [@xenophon41](#): > > “Pablo, the nose is in the wrong place and you’ve got both eyes on one side of the lady’s head! Why are you _really_ showing me this?” > > (In response to post 481) :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/486 "2015-09-21T16:55:02Z")
Just because it “sucks” to you doesn’t mean that he wasn’t proud of it or think that it’s cool. As the parent of a 16 year old, I can tell you that my kid showed me stuff all the time that (to me as an adult) wasn’t any great shakes but he obviously thought was cool enough to show his dad. Naturally, I told him that it was shit so he wouldn’t get any stupid ideas about bringing it to school. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/487 "2015-09-21T16:56:38Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > And yet Obama never responded to, invited the kid or even mentioned [this case](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/pop-tart-gun_n_3419815.html). Or [this case](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140821/17433328285/students-story-about-shooting-pet-dinosaur-with-gun-ends-suspension-arrest.shtml). All these other people and groups offering memberships and stuff to Ahmed Mohammed didn’t think that suspending a kid for chewing a poptart into some shape or arresting a kid for writing a story about shooting a dinosaur is “contrary to the values that Americans claim to uphold”? So you linked to a _Huffington Post_ story bemoaning the poptart suspension and a _Techdirt_ story about the dinosaur fiction to show, what liberal hypocrisy? You might be doing it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/488 "2015-09-21T17:00:34Z")
Again, the Pop Tart kid was suspended for disrupting the class after a history of disciplinary problems, not because he “made a gun”. The dinosaur kid was arrested for causing problems while being questioned at school, not because of the “no stories about guns and dinosaurs” law. I’m usually a pretty law & order, listen to authority kind of guy and look for the “real story” when the headline is “Man arrested for [improbable reason]”. I can’t find a “real story” here beyond an asinine overreaction from the school and police. Maybe based in racism, maybe based in stupidity but certainly not the kid’s fault. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/489 "2015-09-21T17:02:17Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Just because it “sucks” to you doesn’t mean that he wasn’t proud of it or think that it’s cool. As the parent of a 16 year old, I can tell you that my kid showed me stuff all the time that (to me as an adult) wasn’t any great shakes but he obviously thought was cool enough to show his dad. > > Naturally, I told him that it was shit so he wouldn’t get any stupid ideas about bringing it to school. Sure, and when I was 15 my friends and I, who had some musical talent but not enough, decided to audition for the battle of the bands with an avant garde drum septet. This consisted of us (this 100% totally happened, btw) silently walking into the room with the 3 or 4 brave teachers who volunteered to judge the auditions, and banging randomly on whatever drums we had brought into the room for 3 solid minutes. Then we silently left. We did this to be assholes and mock the battle of the bands. And if anyone had asked us, we would have sworn up and down that we were really into avant garde drum music and we hoped we got into the battle of the bands, and we were just trying to make art and totally not be assholes. And the fact that our music sucked shit and took almost no effort pretty much revealed us to be liars. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/490 "2015-09-21T17:02:47Z")
And Obama never commented on [this case](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/boy-10-suspended-imaginary-bow-arrow-article-1.1544627). Or [this one](http://www.kpho.com/story/23847600/8-year-old-threated-with-expulsion-for-drawings). Or [this one](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/education/12discipline.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper). Or the two cases I mentioned before. Could it be because all those kids were white and thus not worthy of Obama’s “political solidarity” as **mhendo** so eloquently put it? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/491 "2015-09-21T17:04:35Z")
Look, if a kid’s Ahmed and dangerous, you can’t go inviting him to the White House. I’ll be here all week, etc. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/492 "2015-09-21T17:20:19Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > And Obama never commented on [this case](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/boy-10-suspended-imaginary-bow-arrow-article-1.1544627). Or [this one](http://www.kpho.com/story/23847600/8-year-old-threated-with-expulsion-for-drawings). Or [this one](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/education/12discipline.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper). Or the two cases I mentioned before. Could it be because all those kids were white and thus not worthy of Obama’s “political solidarity” as **mhendo** so eloquently put it? Probably not. If you had a trend of him inviting 37 black or brown students to the white house, and zero white kids, than maybe it’d be a trend, but if it’s just one kid, then probably not. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/493 "2015-09-21T17:22:12Z")
You guys don’t get it. A white kid got in trouble one time so racism doesn’t exist. Open your god damn eyes! ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/494 "2015-09-21T17:22:38Z")
I think if there’s a bunch of cases of overzealous administrators enforcing stupid “zero tolerance” policies, and a handful of cases of overzealous and casually racist administrators enforcing stupid “zero tolerance” policies, it’s easy to understand why the latter might garner more attention and be more worthy of being highlighted by the president. I don’t see a problem with that. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/495 "2015-09-21T17:31:25Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > And if anyone had asked us, we would have sworn up and down that we were really into avant garde drum music and we hoped we got into the battle of the bands, and we were just trying to make art and totally not be assholes. The kid wasn’t being accused of mocking science or electronic engineering with a shitty clock project, he was being accused of bringing a false bomb into the school as a deliberate hoax. The “evidence” outside people are using to still pursue this line of accusation is “Well, I think his project sucks”. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/496 "2015-09-21T17:46:10Z")
I’m confused. What are we supposed to be outraged about now? What did Ahmed do that was so terrible? I unknowingly made some craptacular stuff when I was a kid. I’m pretty sure I showed my creations off to a teacher or two. Because it is nice to hear encouraging words, especially during that awkward phase of adolescence when you’re trying to find that thing you’re good at. No one has praised Ahmed for his clock-making prowess, except for his teacher (whom I’m guessing would have said something kind regardless of what he’d shown her). What the nation has collectively done is encourage his spirit so that he doesn’t just give up and become yet another disenchanted youth of America. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/497 "2015-09-21T18:01:17Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I’m confused. What are we supposed to be outraged about now? What did Ahmed do that was so terrible? > > I unknowingly made some craptacular stuff when I was a kid. I’m pretty sure I showed my creations off to a teacher or two. Because it is nice to hear encouraging words, especially during that awkward phase of adolescence when you’re trying to find that thing you’re good at. > > No one has praised Ahmed for his clock-making prowess, except for his teacher (whom I’m guessing would have said something kind regardless of what he’d shown her). What the nation has collectively done is encourage his spirit so that he doesn’t just give up and become yet another disenchanted youth of America. There are a few people here who criticize the creation Ahmed made as nothing more than a sloppy box of parts he pilfered and reassembled. Sort of like criticizing a 5-year-old piano player for playing _Twinkle Twinkle Little Star_ instead of the _Flight of the Bumblebee_. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/498 "2015-09-21T18:22:30Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Naturally, I told him that it was shit so he wouldn’t get any stupid ideas about bringing it to school. Well you have to crush their hopeful little spirits young, otherwise someone else will rob you of these precious moments, when their soulful eyes grow dim at the realization of the absolute unfair and uncaring nature of the universe, the inability to escape loneliness, the futility of everything, the inexorability of death or the continued existence of broadway musicals. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/499 "2015-09-21T18:40:44Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > And yet Obama never responded to, invited the kid or even mentioned [this case](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/pop-tart-gun_n_3419815.html). Or [this case](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140821/17433328285/students-story-about-shooting-pet-dinosaur-with-gun-ends-suspension-arrest.shtml). All these other people and groups offering memberships and stuff to Ahmed Mohammed didn’t think that suspending a kid for chewing a poptart into some shape or arresting a kid for writing a story about shooting a dinosaur is “contrary to the values that Americans claim to uphold”? > [@Terr](#): > > And Obama never commented on [this case](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/boy-10-suspended-imaginary-bow-arrow-article-1.1544627). Or [this one](http://www.kpho.com/story/23847600/8-year-old-threated-with-expulsion-for-drawings). Or [this one](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/education/12discipline.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper). Or the two cases I mentioned before. Could it be because all those kids were white and thus not worthy of Obama’s “political solidarity” as **mhendo** so eloquently put it? Send [Jerry Lanier](http://sudan.usembassy.gov/dcm.html) to the boy’s house instead! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/500 "2015-09-21T18:44:34Z")
Gotta give youth practice at getting falsely arrested in a controlled environment so once they are older and out and about on their own they will already know how to behave and not get shot when being falsely arrested. Folks, when comparing your USA to other first world nations, both your incarceration rate and your death-by-cop rate is off the map. In short, you are not as free as you claim to be. The treatment this lad received is a symptom of your societies’ problem. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454.md?page=26)