It looks very suspicious in a world full of terrorism so the kid is confronted by teachers and ultimately arrested. This was a mistake.
Is it dangerous to condemn these teachers as racist when all levels of Government from local, State, to Federal are imploring that we be vigilant to fight homegrown terrorism? If we see it, report it.
For example; If I am at a marathon and see a Dzhokhar Tsarnaev look alike put a backpack down and walk away, do I warn people of potential danger or do I worry about being labeled a racist if it turns out to be a forgetful kid that simply forgot his backpack?
There’s a difference between a backpack abandoned in a public place by a stranger, and a school pupil - who presumably is known to his teachers - bringing his project work to school and having it misunderstood. His engineering teacher apparently praised his work on the project: so which higher authority in the school was so lacking in common sense as to ignore the judgement of their own staff, and why?
It isn’t different at all. Before the Boston Marathon a backpack was just a backpack. Every student who has ever committed mass shootings was known by his school staff too. If this kid had a bomb then they would be heros. He didn’t in this case and now they are demonized. So, is the message now to only confront potential threats if there is no possibility of offending people?
You sound like you don’t actually know the details of the story.
You do know two teachers looked at the clock and knew it wasn’t a bomb, and that there were hours between the 2nd teacher confiscating the clock and the kid being arrested?
Nobody was confronting a potential threat, they knew it wasn’t a bomb.
I’d like to know when this engineering teacher first saw this device? As far as I know the clock was switched on during English class and it began ticking. Not the smartest move ever by this kid. If a schoolkid had brought a replica gun to school im sure the authorities would have went into panic mode too. I suspect to your average English teacher this device does look something like a bomb.
Still relevant. I’m asking if it dangerous to condemn these teachers as racist when all levels of Government from local, State, to Federal are imploring that we be vigilant to fight homegrown terrorism?
Just for the sake of conversation, what if a kid (black, white, or other) brings a device that looks like a bomb to school next week and it explodes and kills everyone?
OK, they knew it wasn’t a bomb after two hours. A kid brings a 1" replica gun from a toy to school and gets suspended. They knew it wasn’t a real gun, but he still got suspended. How is bringing a device that looks like a bomb any less disruptive or any less grounds for punishment?
What if instead of calling it racism, we say lesson learned and tell kids that if they want to bring something legitimate, but odd to school then they should use common sense and have it approved?
Because it doesn’t look like a bomb, except in the mind of a total dingbat who thinks bombs look like they do in Looney Tunes. I’ve got things in my office right now that look far more explosive than a simple circuit board, should I be worried?
Instead of worrying about the common sense of the kids I would look to the common sense of the adults in this one. Led away in handcuffs because of a circuit board and a few wires? Pathetic.
If you have any further comments please ask them in the Pit thread, I can’t respond appropriately here.
There is more than one thread on the subject in a number of different boards this could be posted in. But hey, feel free to stop responding. You don’t think it looks like a bomb, therefore anyone who does think it looks like a bomb is pathetic? Sort of hard to qualify a perceived threat based on individual experience, especially when we’re constantly being told the whole world wants to kill us.
It would be reasonable to take the kid to the Principal’s office, along with his engineering teacher, and discuss it.
It is not reasonable for him to be arrested, if it was clear it was an entirely innocent and non-lethal device.
The assumptions made and the conclusions leapt to were wholly unreasonable. Report, fine. Investigate, fine. Arrest? There has to be a damned good reason for that.
If they thought it was a bomb (or even had a suspicion it might be), then why did they leave it sitting around for two hours? Why wasn’t the school evacuated? Why wasn’t bomb disposal called?
Either they thought it was a bomb, in which case they didn’t act appropriately (which would have potentially endangered hundreds of lives had it turned out to be one), or they didn’t in fact think it was a bomb, in which case they had no business getting the kid arrested. Punished maybe (although a suspension is pushing it, IMO), but not led away in handcuffs.
Either way, whatever they thought, they acted way inappropriately for the situation and they should be charged for it. The kid shouldn’t be the only one to get punished here.
No. A backpack sitting by itself in a public place has NEVER been “just a backpack”. Ask anyone from Israel. People in the United States who didn’t notice and act on a suspicious package before the Boston Marathon bombing were clueless.
Americans are just slow to learn some things. The time to notice and report packages / backpacks that are suspicious is now. It’s a dangerous mistake to wait until a few more backpack bombs go off before we here in the U.S. make sure to always report suspicious packages immediately.
I have reported such packages several times. My complaints were met with at best, indifference, at worst with near derision.
They knew it wasn’t a bomb from the beginning. It wasn’t found somewhere ticking suspiciously with no one saying what it was, the kid was showing it off.
If they ever thought it was a bomb, then the school would have been evacuated and the bomb squad brought in to investigate the possible bomb. Since they were never called in, they either knew it wasn’t a bomb, or they acted completely careless regarding safety. Either way, it doesn’t look good on them.
And just because there has been ridiculous punishments in the past, doesn’t mean that there should be ridiculous punishments in the future. Being punished for bringing a 1" toy replica gun is ridiculous, being punished for bringing a homemade clock to school is also ridiculous.
I just keep imagining being one of the kids parents, in a meeting with the principal, and having to tell myself over and over and over again
“Yes, it’s probably true that this is basically the result of two adults with control issues being fearful because a 12 year old can do things they can’t even understand, but it won’t help to say it to their faces. DON’T SAY IT THAT WAY. DON’T SAY IT!”
I have no idea what I would put it. I think I’ll spend my time more pleasantly, imagining the valedictorian speech the kid can give when he graduates high school and can get the heck out of that ignorant racist hole of a town.
I don’t understand why the kid’s engineering teacher wasn’t consulted before calling the cops. He had already examined the device and could have confirmed it was part of a homework assignment.
The story really takes a bizarre turn when they claim its a fake bomb. That requires intent. Leaving it somewhere to scare people. This kid was carrying it with him. Exactly like you’d expect any school work to be carried.
I read the news articles closely. They never called in the bomb squad. There was never any question that it was a harmless device. The cops came up with this bogus fake bomb charge from thin air.
I don’t really have much of a problem with a school requiring that a homemade object be pre-approved before the student takes it to class, but the way this was handled is beyond reason.
I find it very sad that this young man has expressed his great surprise at the support he has since received. What the hell does that say about his normal treatment.
