# 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:** 26
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/501 "2015-09-21T18:53:53Z")
Are we now arguing about WHY the kid made something? He made something because he felt like it! Is this not the country where kids used to make ham radios and soapbox racers? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/502 "2015-09-21T18:54:40Z")
So the debate centers on: why did this dumb dark-skinned kid from the Other get so much attention foisted on him, while the Lame-stream Media ignores creative White Christian kids when they’re slapped down by a school/government bureaucracy (probably operating under faulty political correctness, corruption and even malice)? I do condemn extreme right-wingers who need to twist Every.Single.Incident to fit their narrative (consider themselves lucky not to be named) _**Emperor Obama Of-The-Drones is in league with Marxists, Saudis, Ayatollah, the Devil and the Illuminati He wants to vaccinate your Grandmother and make you pay for it**_ > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Do not bite the silica powder. It would be relevant to examine the bomb and guess whether it was intended as a bomb prank/hoax. Slacker(?) is arguing for that; maybe he’s right. What do others think? What display (e.g. up or down) did the clock have? Have good photos been posted? ---
**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, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/503 "2015-09-21T19:14:33Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > It would be relevant to examine the bomb You mean “clock”? ---
**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 21, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/504 "2015-09-21T19:19:20Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Of course. See, he’s a budding inventor. That kid that chewed his pop tart into the shape of a gun and was suspended for it is a budding sculptor. I have to say, if this were going to be a fair comparison, someone would’ve had to go overboard and get this kid a lifetime NRA membership or something. Maybe you’re right. Maybe liberals do [overreact](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/pastry-gun-suspension_n_3357680.html). ---
**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, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/505 "2015-09-21T19:23:21Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I have to say, if this were going to be a fair comparison, someone would’ve had to go overboard and get this kid a lifetime NRA membership or something. > > Maybe you’re right. Maybe liberals do [overreact](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/pastry-gun-suspension_n_3357680.html). What, no Obama invite to the White House? Guess there is no “political solidarity” there. Let’s see the calculus here. Looks-like-a-bomb-scary-thing plus Muslim kid - “political solidarity”. Looks-like-a-gun-scary-thing plus white Kid - no “political solidarity”. Gotcha. ---
**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 21, 2015, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/506 "2015-09-21T19:27:47Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > What, no Obama invite to the White House? Guess there is no “political solidarity” there. Let’s see the calculus here. Looks-like-a-bomb-scary-thing plus Muslim kid - “political solidarity”. Looks-like-a-gun-scary-thing plus white Kid - no “political solidarity”. Gotcha. :rolleyes: You are so dumb, it’s not even funny. > [@septimus](#): > > It would be relevant to examine the bomb and guess whether it was intended as a bomb prank/hoax. Slacker(?) is arguing for that; maybe he’s right. What do others think? What display (e.g. up or down) did the clock have? Have good photos been posted? [This is almost certainly what the silica powder was](http://images.wisegeek.com/silica-gel-packet.jpg). Now, I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t look to me like an explosive. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/507 "2015-09-21T19:28:14Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > So the debate centers on: why did this dumb dark-skinned kid from the Other get so much attention foisted on him, while the Lame-stream Media ignores creative White Christian kids when they’re slapped down by a school/government bureaucracy (probably operating under faulty political correctness, corruption and even malice)? > > I do condemn extreme right-wingers who need to twist Every.Single.Incident to fit their narrative (consider themselves lucky not to be named) > _**Emperor Obama Of-The-Drones is in league with Marxists, Saudis, Ayatollah, the Devil and the Illuminati > He wants to vaccinate your Grandmother and make you pay for it**_ > It would be relevant to examine the bomb and guess whether it was intended as a bomb prank/hoax. Slacker(?) is arguing for that; maybe he’s right. What do others think? What display (e.g. up or down) did the clock have? Have good photos been posted? [Yup](http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/header.jpg). It was just a disassembled digital clock re-packaged into a little suitcase-style pencil holder. It was so suspicious, because it told _time_. Apparently, in Texas (and for certain posters here), that is akin to magic. As has been stated over and over - **nobody** who examined it ever thought it was a bomb. Was it a hoax bomb? If you can define what one is, maybe we can come to some consensus. It seems that, like pornography, it can’t be defined, but the folks there (and here) know one when they see one. ---
**Author:** ![buckgully](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb9ed0/32.png) [@buckgully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buckgully)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/508 "2015-09-21T19:56:29Z")
This just in: 8th Grader Suzy MacIntyre did not, as she has presumably claimed, construct an actual volcano from paper maché, vinegar and baking soda. We consulted with several experts in the field of looking at pictures of things and telling things by the pixels, and we have uncovered the shocking truth that actual volcanoes are actually really big and have lava and stuff, and her obviously shit project is only 14 inches tall and has foam with red food coloring in it. The only conclusion we can make is that she did it because she wants everyone to get an abortion. Coming up next: Did Ralph Wiggum actually invent Wookies as we assume he claims? ---
**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 21, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/509 "2015-09-21T20:30:27Z")
I’m certainly feeling less outnumbered in this thread than I was a couple days ago. Which raises a meta-question: does the scorn that was heaped on me apply to the skeptics who have subsequently arrived? If so, why am I not seeing it? This is the Pit, after all. (No, it’s not all bonhomie, but the barbs have been signifcantly more muted.) For that matter, I haven’t detected quite the same level of vitriol aimed my way of late, either. Is that because my/our antagonists are, deep down, sheepishly starting to realize they were snookered, or at least do not feel on as firm ground as they once did? (It might be interesting to go back and count up how many formerly full-throated Ahmed defenders have quietly slunk away and have stopped posting ITT altogether.) Or maybe it’s about “in” vs. “out” groups. I don’t really know the lay of the land in terms of the membership of whatever Doper cliques may exist–except that I’m not in any of them. So it was safe to “other” me (ironic, that); but perhaps now some of the people taking a skeptical view have more social cachet around here, making it awkward to lay into members of the “in” group the same way? (If that’s the explanation, I may be getting off more lightly because it would be too obvious to excoriate me individually for saying the same things as others are given a pass on.) I honestly couldn’t say, but it seems a reasonable hypothesis given what I know about social group dynamics in general. > [@RTFirefly](#): > > You think Sarah and Bristol Palin are up in arms at Obama because the quality of Ahmed’s science project wasn’t adequately vetted, or because they thought this kid might still be a terrorist? This is precisely what Chris Matthews was lamenting. It’s all about in-group solidarity vs. “othering”. If they’re agin’ it, I’m for it. This goes foursquare against the ethos of the SDMB, if you ask me. We should be for digging into the truth of things, not just lining up in our partisan ranks. I have no love for the Palins, but like “stopped clocks” (heh), they are not always wrong about everything. More precisely, they can often be wrong in the extremeness of their views, or the motivations for their views, without the truth being 180 degrees away from their narrative. Nuance, people, c’mon. > [@andros](#): > > What if monkeys fly out of my ass? What if Hitler’s brain is still alive? What if the gnomes of Zurich actually control the TriLats? > > There’s actual evidence for the “the kid invents and tinkers” story. There’s no evidence for the “the kid’s a political activist” idea. I think the kid’s father’s background provides plenty of circumstantial evidence. Not enough to “convict”, but enough to give us reason to be a little more skeptical and not just blindly circle the wagons around him. > [@xenophon41](#): > > Because of the law of parsimony for one (you’re needlessly adding assumptions in order to support the “hoax” version), and because there’s no indication in any reporting of the circumstances that shows Ahmed was being anything but earnest in how he presented the clock. No prankster behaviors, no bragging or showing off to other students, no slyness in answering teacher questions or attempting to hide the device. I would love to see some reporting on these very questions (although “attempting to hide the device” is not what he would do if he were trying to provoke a reaction). But as Dopers we should all be well aware that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. And it’s either naive or disingenuous to think that we are in an environment in which these things would have a good chance of being uncovered if they were true, as you seem to suggest. Who’s going to assign a reporter to do that digging? I can’t picture it being anyone but a right wing publication, and if it comes from that sort of source it will be immediately (and understandably) dismissed by the left and center, and in fact will spur the left to just double down all the more. Which goes back to the chilling effect of political correctness I was complaining about: I want legitimate media outlets like the NYT or WaPo to feel free to investigate questions of this sort, because I’m not ready to trust an investigation by NewsMax or FOX News either. > [@xenophon41](#): > > He’d spent a few minutes the night before putting a clock into a pencil case. Yes, it’s not a fabulously cool idea in and of itself, and yes, it was poorly executed, but it’s the type of thing a tinkering teen does _all the effin’ time_. I think it’s very constructive to note how the pro-Ahmed crowd has slowly but surely retrenched (and dragged the goal posts along with them). When I entered this thread, saying something like “it’s not a fabulously cool idea” and “it was poorly executed” was a hanging offense. Now that’s just a given. Where will those goalposts end up? Maybe they’re done moving, but I could also see them before long evolving into “Okay, maybe he and his dad cooked up this test of the school’s Islamophobia, but good for them: they did us all a service by uncovering it”. (And I suspect this may already be what some of you are thinking, deep down.) > [@andros](#): > > Please cite any of those who have called the kid a genius of any stripe. Bonus points for citing anyone calling him a “tech genius.” Extra-special bonus points if you can cite anyone in this thread doing either. (Non-sarcastically, of course.) When I entered the thread, the most recent page or two of posts (I’ll confess to not going back to the beginning) included comments like these, which were not being challenged: > [@Gyrate](#): > > Being clever enough to build a clock from scratch: we need to encourage that kid. > [@davidm](#): > > Someday, after he’s invented a successful fusion generator, or warp drive, or whatever, this will be an amusing anecdote in his Wikipedia entry. > [@Voyager](#): > > I thought that the school should cancel the suspension, but he needs the time to respond to the White House and just about every CEO in Silicon Valley who are saying building clocks and stuff is exactly what made them successful. He has already been offered one internship. When I kind of verbally rolled my eyes at all this and said the clock was no impressive feat of engineering (which, as I noted above, has slowly become a given even by Ahmed’s defenders), I was challenged as to what I had done at age 14 that could compare with his technical wizardry. And then we were off to the races. > [@Morgenstern](#): > > 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_. This illustrates perfectly what I keep saying: so many people are treating this story as though Ahmed is \*much \*younger, or has something like Down syndrome. He’s 14, people. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/510 "2015-09-21T20:39:49Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I think the kid’s father’s background provides plenty of circumstantial evidence. And the fact that the kid’s room is full of bits and bobs from Radio Shack provides plenty of, yanno, _actual_, non-circumstantial evidence. Confirmation bias is a bitch, don’t become its sucker. > [@](#): > > Not enough to “convict”, but enough to give us reason to be a little more skeptical and not just blindly circle the wagons around him. Your hypothesis that this incident was some sort of politically-motivated hoax is not based in fact. when you have chosen your viewpoint and then seek out aspects of the narrative to justify it, that’s being confirmation bias’ sucker. Don’t be a sucker. > [@](#): > > When I entered the thread, the most recent page or two of posts (I’ll confess to not going back to the beginning) included comments like these, which were not being challenged: **Terr** is a complete fucking idiot, who makes claims that he knows are false in order to try make some sort of ideological point. He cannot support his claims because they are not based in reality. He knows this, which is why he will not respond to my requests to support his bullshit. Don’t be like **Terr**. Please. . ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/511 "2015-09-21T20:49:27Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > When I kind of verbally rolled my eyes at all this and said the clock was no impressive feat of engineering (which, as I noted above, has slowly become a given even by Ahmed’s defenders), I was challenged as to what I had done at age 14 that could compare with his technical wizardry. And then we were off to the races. I agree with you that those people should have let your comment go. And they should have let it go for precisely the reason i suggested in my earlier post: because focusing on whether or not the clock was an “impressive feat of engineering” is completely fucking asinine in the context of this particular issue. It’s irrelevant, and people focusing on it are drooling morons who apparently don’t understand the actual ideals and principles involved in this case. If you did make something more sophisticated than a clock at age 14, your arguments in this thread are demonstrating the you’ve regressed since then. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > This illustrates perfectly what I keep saying: so many people are treating this story as though Ahmed is \*much \*younger, or has something like Down syndrome. He’s 14, people. Also irrelevant. ---
**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 21, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/512 "2015-09-21T20:53:11Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I’m certainly feeling less outnumbered in this thread than I was a couple days ago. Which raises a meta-question: does the scorn that was heaped on me apply to the skeptics who have subsequently arrived? If so, why am I not seeing it? This is the Pit, after all. (No, it’s not all bonhomie, but the barbs have been signifcantly more muted.) > > For that matter, I haven’t detected quite the same level of vitriol aimed my way of late, either. Is that because my/our antagonists are, deep down, sheepishly starting to realize they were snookered, or at least do not feel on as firm ground as they once did? (It might be interesting to go back and count up how many formerly full-throated Ahmed defenders have quietly slunk away and have stopped posting ITT altogether.) > > Or maybe it’s about “in” vs. “out” groups. I don’t really know the lay of the land in terms of the membership of whatever Doper cliques may exist–except that I’m not in any of them. So it was safe to “other” me (ironic, that); but perhaps now some of the people taking a skeptical view have more social cachet around here, making it awkward to lay into members of the “in” group the same way? (If that’s the explanation, I may be getting off more lightly because it would be too obvious to excoriate me individually for saying the same things as others are given a pass on.) I honestly couldn’t say, but it seems a reasonable hypothesis given what I know about social group dynamics in general. I cannot possibly imagine why you think we’d be interested in this level of your analysis of how people are responding to you. Well, no, that’s not true; I imagine you think it because you’re something of a narcissistic douchebag. Be assured that nobody else cares. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/513 "2015-09-21T20:55:54Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > When I kind of verbally rolled my eyes at all this and said the clock was no impressive feat of engineering… But only after the “hoax bomb” gambit fell flat. Ahmed’s age or ingenuity was never the point of this story, but you have tried your best to steer it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/514 "2015-09-21T20:58:25Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > And by the same token, it doesn’t matter if the clock isn’t particularly special. The sophistication of the clock is completely irrelevant. Whatever the level of sophistication, no-one actually denies that it actually IS a clock, the student never represented it as anything BUT a clock, and his science teacher also recognized and acknowledged that it was, in fact, a fucking clock. And he was still questioned by the cops, and he was still arrested, and he was still suspended. That’s why people are involved in this. When you stand beside someone based on a principle, you do it for the principle itself. Yes. Well said. > [@Anaamika](#): > > Are we now arguing about WHY the kid made something? Yes. Some are. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > I’m certainly feeling less outnumbered in this thread than I was a couple days ago. Which raises a meta-question: does the scorn that was heaped on me apply to the skeptics who have subsequently arrived? If so, why am I not seeing it? This is the Pit, after all. (No, it’s not all bonhomie, but the barbs have been signifcantly more muted.) Scorn is heaped on you because you are a paranoid lunatic. Oh, and Dawkins made it clear on twitter that he wasn’t trashing the kid, but merely media credulity as well as his own. So don’t draw him into your team of one. ---
**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 21, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/515 "2015-09-21T21:01:17Z")
I do meet the clinical definition of narcissm, but like homosexuality a half century ago, I think it’s bogus to pathologize robust self regard. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/516 "2015-09-21T21:02:05Z")
Seems to me there are 2 issues here: 1. Did the kid bring something to school that could reasonable be considered to be against the rule they have about bringing a fake bomb to school. 2. If yes to #1, did the administration and police over-react? Extra credit: Would it have made a difference it his name was Jimmy White, and he was a Christian. (Just joking around issue, since this is the Pit and all: A clocK? You’re kidding me!!) Frankly, I say “yes” to number 1. And I think the kid was, at best, naive to not know that. Now, lots of kids are naive at 14, so maybe that’s just par for the course. But… the school does have such a rule, and the contraption could reasonably be suspicious as being a bomb or a fake bomb. As for #2, I agree there was an over-reaction. Once the determination was made that it was NOT a bomb, then the kid is not a physical threat. His parents should have been called immediately, and this should have been a matter handled by the school, not the cops. I’m not convinced the kid was profiled because of his religion. Schools have zero tolerance rules these days, and if you bring what may be a dangerous object, or even a facsimile of a dangerous, to school, it’s not uncommon for the kid to get pounced on. I blame the “zero tolerance rules” more than anything else. And we only have ourselves to blame because we all get hysterical when tragedy strikes, and someone, somewhere wants to sue. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/517 "2015-09-21T21:11:17Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Frankly, I say “yes” to number 1. And I think the kid was, at best, naive to not know that. Now, lots of kids are naive at 14, so maybe that’s just par for the course. But… the school does have such a rule, and the contraption could reasonably be suspicious as being a bomb or a fake bomb. Would this mean that a student should never bring any exposed electronics project to school? Are there not high school classes that teach electronics? How should those students complete their projects? ---
**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 21, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/518 "2015-09-21T21:14:32Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > But only after the “hoax bomb” gambit fell flat. Ahmed’s age or ingenuity was never the point of this story, but you have tried your best to steer it that way. Incorrect. > [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Oh, and Dawkins made it clear on twitter that he wasn’t trashing the kid, but merely media credulity as well as his own. So don’t draw him into your team of one. As near as I can tell, Dawkins position is pretty well precisely the same as mine, except that maybe I have not as assiduously tried to emphasize that I don’t bear any ill will against the boy. ---
**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 21, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/519 "2015-09-21T21:15:17Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Seems to me there are 2 issues here: > > 1. Did the kid bring something to school that could reasonable be considered to be against the rule they have about bringing a fake bomb to school. > > Frankly, I say “yes” to number 1. And I think the kid was, at best, naive to not know that. Now, lots of kids are naive at 14, so maybe that’s just par for the course. But… the school does have such a rule, and the contraption could reasonably be suspicious as being a bomb or a fake bomb. How can you get #1 == true when the science/engineering teacher didnt confiscate it? And why are you calling it a “fake bomb” - the kid didn’t take a “fake bomb” to school. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454/520 "2015-09-21T21:16:05Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > [Yup](http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/header.jpg). Let me hijack the thread to Pit the Internet Powers that Be. I cannot access that image: (Does [artvoice.com](http://artvoice.com) needs some cookies from me?) “403. You don’t have permission to access /techvoice/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/header.jpg on this server.” NM – I’ll Google if I get desperate to see a photo; I just wanted to Pit links that don’t work, sites that deny permission, etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454.md?page=25) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ro-this-is-totally-going-to-kill-bring-your-clock-to-school-day/731454.md?page=27)