# So a kid brings a homemade clock to school... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 17, 2015, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544 "2015-09-17T06:53:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/61 "2015-09-18T02:38:43Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > If they have wires sticking out or a timer then yes, there is reason to be suspicious. > > this was a container with wires sticking out and a timer. You didn’t say anything about wires in your backpack with chips. Were we supposed to assume you meant to include that in your description of what would get a kid arrested? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/62 "2015-09-18T05:57:17Z")
[Yet another image of what a bomb looks like.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Dr._Strangelove_-_Riding_the_Bomb.png) And the guy there didn’t just drop it somewhere and abandon it either. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/63 "2015-09-18T11:19:30Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > kids have been busted for nibbling a pop tart into the shape of a gun or simple possessing a picture of a gun. Which are also stupid policies. But typically in those cases, kids are pantomiming gunplay. In this case, the kid’s just saying “here’s my electronics project, which is a clock.” Nobody bats an eye when a white kid builds a clock. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/64 "2015-09-18T11:27:25Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > that looks homemade to you? Do you see wires sticking out of it. That’s how bombs are made. Yes, if there’s one thing television has taught us, bomb-makers want their bombs to be easily identified by passers-by, so they use a tangle of multi-colored wires. They never try to disguise it as an ordinary household appliance. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/65 "2015-09-18T11:54:54Z")
If anyone at the school had legitimately thought it was a bomb, even a slight possibility, they would have called the local police and sent for the bomb squad. To not do so would have been an act of staggering negligence. That they did not do so causes me to fall on the side of “yeah, racist school authorities picking on the brown kid.” ---
**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 18, 2015, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/66 "2015-09-18T12:02:17Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > that looks homemade to you? Do you see wires sticking out of it. That’s how bombs are made. So does any science project with home built electronics. Are you suggesting high school kids should not be building electronics projects at school? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/67 "2015-09-18T14:52:30Z")
A few things outsiders probably don’t know: 1. Irving, Texas, is not some tiny, backwoods hick town run by rednecks and trailer trash. It’s a large, prosperous suburb of Dallas, inhabited and run in large measure by people who moved there from somewhere else. 2. People in Irving are not unacquainted with brown skinned Asians. Irving is home to numerous high tech companies. Thousands of Indians, Iranians and Pakistanis work at those firms, live in Irving, and send their kids to Irving’s public schools. Rest assured that Ahmed Mohammed is not the only Muslim, let alone the only brown-skinned kid, in any of his classes. At first glance, it looks as if a teacher and the school administration handled this poorly, maybe even stupidly. But I, for one won’t be shocked if it turns out later the kid’s publicity hound father was behind this all along. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/68 "2015-09-18T15:18:25Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > A few things outsiders probably don’t know: > > 1. Irving, Texas, is not some tiny, backwoods hick town run by rednecks and trailer trash. It’s a large, prosperous suburb of Dallas, inhabited and run in large measure by people who moved there from somewhere else. > > 2. People in Irving are not unacquainted with brown skinned Asians. Irving is home to numerous high tech companies. Thousands of Indians, Iranians and Pakistanis work at those firms, live in Irving, and send their kids to Irving’s public schools. Rest assured that Ahmed Mohammed is not the only Muslim, let alone the only brown-skinned kid, in any of his classes. > At first glance, it looks as if a teacher and the school administration handled this poorly, maybe even stupidly. But I, for one won’t be shocked if it turns out later the kid’s publicity hound father was behind this all along. First of all, what do you mean you think that the father was behind it? You think he wanted his kid to get arrested? How would have orchestrated this? Also, racism doesn’t just happen in small hick towns where the vast majority of the population is white. And while I’m sure that many people in Irving aren’t actively prejudiced against Middle Eastern people, [apparently those in the area feel that Islamophobia is growing.](http://www.buzzfeed.com/salvadorhernandez/ahmed-mohameds-homemade-clock-arrest-shocked-a-nation-but-no#.sy2YeZk85M) > [@](#): > > Anti-Islamic sentiment spiked in Irving, Texas, and across the nation shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. On Sept. 12 that year, six bullets were shot at the local mosque. > > In the years since, the targeting subsided, but Muslim professionals and Irving leaders say they’ve seen a resurgence recently in their North Texas community. From Facebook posts and hiring practices to disparaging public comments made by city and school leaders in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Muslim residents say incidents like that 14-year-old Mohamed faced are becoming all too commonplace. > [@](#): > > In February, news of a Islamic tribunal in Irving sparked fears that its members were seeking to implement Sharia, though members of the tribunal explained they were there to provide voluntary, religious, nonbinding guidance to the community in matters such as divorce, family, and business disputes. The tribunal would act similarly to Christian and Jewish religious leaders who offer guidance. > > But that didn’t stop Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne to ask the city council to pass a measure supporting a state bill known as the “American Laws for American Courts,” which according to supporters would keep “foreign laws” from being recognized in Texas. If there is just one Muslim family in the area, then other people might be okay with them, because they are “some of the good ones,” and they’re not much of a threat. But as more Muslim people move to the area, xenophobic people might be more freaked out about the immigrants coming in and taking jobs and starting Sharia law. That seems to be what’s happening in the Dallas area to some extent. ---
**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, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/69 "2015-09-18T15:20:05Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > At first glance, it looks as if a teacher and the school administration handled this poorly, maybe even stupidly. But I, for one won’t be shocked if it turns out later the kid’s publicity hound father was behind this all along. Kindly describe how his father might have been behind it. What was his master plan, and how did he ensure it’d go off as planned? Because if he was behind it, that guy’s a goddamned Machiavellian genius. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/70 "2015-09-18T16:12:14Z")
Fake anti-Muslim hate crimes are far from uncommon. Some of them have been trumpeted on these very boards by people who wanted to scream about Islamophobia… only to find it didn’t exist. [http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/31/us-crime-iraqi-hate-idUSBRE82U0HK20120331](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/31/us-crime-iraqi-hate-idUSBRE82U0HK20120331) [http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/02/muslim-student-at-ut-arlington-says-man-with-gun-followed-her-to-campus-threatened-her.html/](http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/02/muslim-student-at-ut-arlington-says-man-with-gun-followed-her-to-campus-threatened-her.html/) [http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/news/id\_9053/Iraqi-American-man-arrested-while-burning-Quran-in-Dearborn.html](http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/news/id_9053/Iraqi-American-man-arrested-while-burning-Quran-in-Dearborn.html) [http://www.northjersey.com/news/montclair-state-university-says-student-fabricated-islamic-terrorist-story-1.1004438](http://www.northjersey.com/news/montclair-state-university-says-student-fabricated-islamic-terrorist-story-1.1004438) None of these people who lied about Islamophobic incidents was a Machiavellian mastermind. Far from it- many hoaxsters are either crazy or absurdly stupid. But all get taken seriously enough to raise the spectre of “hate crimes.” ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/71 "2015-09-18T17:07:25Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Fake anti-Muslim hate crimes are far from uncommon. Some of them have been trumpeted on these very boards by people who wanted to scream about Islamophobia… only to find it didn’t exist. > > [http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/31/us-crime-iraqi-hate-idUSBRE82U0HK20120331](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/31/us-crime-iraqi-hate-idUSBRE82U0HK20120331) > > [http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/02/muslim-student-at-ut-arlington-says-man-with-gun-followed-her-to-campus-threatened-her.html/](http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/02/muslim-student-at-ut-arlington-says-man-with-gun-followed-her-to-campus-threatened-her.html/) > > [http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/news/id\_9053/Iraqi-American-man-arrested-while-burning-Quran-in-Dearborn.html](http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/news/id_9053/Iraqi-American-man-arrested-while-burning-Quran-in-Dearborn.html) > > [http://www.northjersey.com/news/montclair-state-university-says-student-fabricated-islamic-terrorist-story-1.1004438](http://www.northjersey.com/news/montclair-state-university-says-student-fabricated-islamic-terrorist-story-1.1004438) > None of these people who lied about Islamophobic incidents was a Machiavellian mastermind. Far from it- many hoaxsters are either crazy or absurdly stupid. But all get taken seriously enough to raise the spectre of “hate crimes.” So your links say this: [ul] [li]An Iranian woman was beaten to death [/li][li]A Muslim student lied about a man following her with a gun[/li][li]An Iraqi man was mad at other Muslims and burned some Korans outside an Islamic educational center[/li][li]A Muslim student lied about being assaulted and called an Islamic terrorist[/li][/ul] So in two of those, people did straight up lie, no attack apparently ever happened. The Iranian-American woman was initially thought to be killed as a hate crime because of a note left by her body, but it turns out it was by her husband. I guess he fabricated the note to make it look like it was a hate crime, I can’t find any news articles that definitely say that. I can’t find anything so suggest that the Iraqi man burning Korans did it to make up a fake anti-Islam hate crime, it just looks like he was mad at some people. But if you want to do dueling cites, there are real crimes against Muslims in the US, [like a Muslim school being hit by an acid bomb](http://www.cairchicago.org/blog/2012/08/press-release-illinois-muslim-school-hit-with-acid-bomb/), [shots fired at a mosque](http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-shooting-mosque-coachella-20141104-story.html), [an Islamic center being burnt down](http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Islamic-leaders-of-burned-center-ask-prosecutors-6092894.php#/0) and [people cheering about it online.](http://www.houstonpress.com/news/ugly-social-media-response-to-suspected-arson-at-islamic-community-center-6749531) [And hate crimes against Muslims might actually be underreported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/02/17/its-hard-to-prove-any-hate-crime-but-for-muslim-victims-its-especially-tough/): > [@](#): > > One significant hurdle is simply getting hate crimes against Muslims reported to authorities. FBI statistics show that about 160 Muslims were victimized in hate crimes each year between 2011 and 2013. This number is a result of significant underreporting. American Muslims experience prejudice far more often than they report to authorities. When asked anonymously in a 2011 Pew poll if they had been threatened or attacked in the past year, 6 percent of Muslims said they had. Given that the Muslim population was 2.6 million in 2010, responses to the Pew poll suggest that about 156,000 Muslims were victims of hate crimes. The Justice Department notes that two out of every three hate crimes are not reported because victims believe that police cannot or will not help. This is especially true for Muslims, who have been targets of massive surveillance, deportation, questioning and other harassment by local and federal law enforcement during the past 14 years. That excessive scrutiny has eroded the trust necessary for victims to report hate crimes. > > Even if a victim knows how to navigate the law enforcement system and file a hate-crime complaint, there are dynamics that may make it more difficult for Muslim victims to win convictions. In surveys conducted in 2006 and 2007, Georgetown University researchers found that Muslims, whether or not they are American, face severe stereotypes in the United States. Americans stereotype Muslims as far more untrustworthy and violent than whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians. This can create barriers to gaining empathy from police, attorneys, judges and juries. > > Even with these hurdles, a chilling truth remains: The number of reported hate crimes motivated by anti-Muslim bias is five times higher than before 9/11. I’m sure you could find more made up anti-Islam crimes, where someone made something up to get sympathy. But I’d guess there’s not a huge number of them, because a lot of people wouldn’t give any sympathy. It would be like making up an anti-atheist hate crime; some people in the group and some liberals would be outraged and/or sympathetic, but lots of other people would think “well that’s what you get” or “what did you expect” or something like that. Also, you didn’t explain what both \*\*Left Hand of Dorkness \*\*and I were asking about, in how the father would have been behind this all along, because I seriously don’t know what you mean. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/72 "2015-09-18T19:13:30Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > kids have been busted for nibbling a pop tart into the shape of a gun or simple possessing a picture of a gun. How many of those “busts” involved the police arresting the perpetrator? ---
**Author:** ![Gotlift](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9fc348/32.png) [@Gotlift](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotlift)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/73 "2015-09-18T20:20:09Z")
I suppose I should just accept that there are a lot of people who are always going to see racism as a root cause when a minority has a run in with authority. I can’t jump to that conclusion. It would take both sides of the story, not just the media’s and not just the alleged victim’s, for me to come to that conclusion. We have no idea what sequence of events happened that led up to the arrest, but I guess it is just easy for some to turn multiple levels of educated professionals and educators into bigoted idiots that can’t think when they encounter an individual who is other than white. I suppose the media loves that type of person. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/74 "2015-09-18T20:36:43Z")
Forget about the specifics of THIS incident, just a second. SUPPOSE a story was circulating around the Internet saying that the teenage daughter of a prominent fundamentalist Christian activist had been arrested in New York for bringing a Jesus-themed piece of art to school. Would you immediately believe that story, repeat it, and start ripping those school authorities a new anus? I’m guessing the answer is NO. I’m guessing you’d say, “Wait a sec, there’s just liable to be something more to the story that we haven’t heard yet.” I’m also guessing that the Jon Stewarts and Conan O’Briens of the world wouldn’t have been so quick or eager to mock the school administrators. And you’d be right- there probably WOULD be a lot more to the story. And you’d be livid if and when Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity ran with this story, and publicized it nationwide. I’m suggesting that something is fishy here because Ahmed Mohammed’s Dad is not just an ordinary Indian software engineer or a typical Pakistani systems analyst. He’s a guy with a lot of political angles, and I don’t trust him. I’m betting that, AFTER this story has died down (conveniently), we’ll find out there was more to this story than panicky, Islamophobic white folks. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/75 "2015-09-18T21:06:46Z")
> [@Gotlift](#): > > I suppose I should just accept that there are a lot of people who are always going to see racism as a root cause when a minority has a run in with authority. I can’t jump to that conclusion. It would take both sides of the story, not just the media’s and not just the alleged victim’s, for me to come to that conclusion. We have no idea what sequence of events happened that led up to the arrest, but I guess it is just easy for some to turn multiple levels of educated professionals and educators into bigoted idiots that can’t think when they encounter an individual who is other than white. I suppose the media loves that type of person. Racism isn’t a binary thing, where either you are a racist or not, or an action is racist or not. Someone can be a kind, tolerant person, who has friends of different races (not because they tried to collect them all Pokémon style, but just naturally happened), who never makes racist jokes and shuts down people who do, supports equal rights, but still has some subconscious racist thoughts in their mind that can influence their actions. [Like the tests that have been done regarding implicit association.](http://www.science20.com/news_articles/implicit_association_test_are_you_secretly_racist_hint_you_are-92783) It’s not that the school is necessarily filled with bigoted idiot administrators who want to get all the darn Middle Easterners out, it’s just some of them saw the clock and thought bomb, and didn’t think about why their mind went to that place. And it’s probably also combined with bad school policy/zero tolerance type rules, and I know that stupid policies and stupid rules are the scourge of many schools. > [@astorian](#): > > Forget about the specifics of THIS incident, just a second. SUPPOSE a story was circulating around the Internet saying that the teenage daughter of a prominent fundamentalist Christian activist had been arrested in New York for bringing a Jesus-themed piece of art to school. > > Would you immediately believe that story, repeat it, and start ripping those school authorities a new anus? I’m guessing the answer is NO. I’m guessing you’d say, “Wait a sec, there’s just liable to be something more to the story that we haven’t heard yet.” I’m also guessing that the Jon Stewarts and Conan O’Briens of the world wouldn’t have been so quick or eager to mock the school administrators. > > And you’d be right- there probably WOULD be a lot more to the story. And you’d be livid if and when Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity ran with this story, and publicized it nationwide. > > I’m suggesting that something is fishy here because Ahmed Mohammed’s Dad is not just an ordinary Indian software engineer or a typical Pakistani systems analyst. He’s a guy with a lot of political angles, and I don’t trust him. I’m betting that, AFTER this story has died down (conveniently), we’ll find out there was more to this story than panicky, Islamophobic white folks. There definitely could be context that would make their actions make more sense, but I don’t know why they wouldn’t have said it if there was. And even if the story is taken as it’s been presented so far, I don’t think the administrators or teachers should be burned at the stake or fired or anything, I just hope that they and others start thinking things through a big more. You’ve mentioned the father in this case being some sort of activist or publicity hound, where are you getting that? I did a google search for Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, from 1/1/2000 to 9/12/2015, so that the recent news stories relating to the kid’s clock didn’t come up, and not a whole lot comes up. I was expecting a bunch of Quanell X type stories to come up, but there’s just a story about him running for President of Sudan, a few stories about him debating Terry Jones about burning Korans, and then various Linked-In or resume type pages. If he is some sort of activist always inserting himself into news stories I would be suspicious, but as far as I can tell, that doesn’t seem to be the case here, but maybe I’m missing something. ---
**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, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/76 "2015-09-18T22:45:06Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > Also, you didn’t explain what both \*\*Left Hand of Dorkness \*\*and I were asking about, in how the father would have been behind this all along, because I seriously don’t know what you mean. Cue **Muslim Impossible** music: > [@Plan Catchabigot](#): > > Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to build a working clock. But make it look like an explosive device! Only with no fake explosives! Don’t use real explosives either, that’s not what I mean. Nothing in it should look like an explosive! > > Phase 2 of Plan Catchabigot: show it to your engineering teacher. Tell him it’s a clock! He’ll not report it to anyone. > > Phase 3: put it in your backpack so that it beeps during English class. Your English teacher, on hearing the beeping, will tell you it’s annoying! That’s your cue afterward to show her what you built. It looks like an explosive device, only without any explosive! That’ll freak her out! Be sure you tell her it’s a clock. > > Phase 4: If all is going according to plan, that teacher you showed the clock to will tell the principal that you’ve got a fake bomb at school. The principal will call you to the office. **Tell him it’s a clock**. > > Phase 5: The principal, hearing you tell him it’s a clock, will call the police. **Tell the police that it’s a clock**. > > Phase 6: The police, hearing you tell them that it’s a clock, will put you in handcuffs. They’ll explain their actions by saying that you didn’t elaborate on whether it’s a clock. Be sure you’re wearing your NASA T-shirt, because **it’s picture time!** > > Phase 7: Profit!!! > > This message will self-destruct in ten seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/77 "2015-09-19T00:13:39Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I’m guessing the answer is NO. You suck at guessing. Also, at crafting useful analogies. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/78 "2015-09-19T00:19:57Z")
[The clock in question may have been more “repackaged” than “built.”](http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/) Does this make even a little bit of difference? ---
**Author:** ![Gotlift](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9fc348/32.png) [@Gotlift](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotlift)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/79 "2015-09-19T00:28:16Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > Racism isn’t a binary thing, where either you are a racist or not, or an action is racist or not. Someone can be a kind, tolerant person, who has friends of different races (not because they tried to collect them all Pokémon style, but just naturally happened), who never makes racist jokes and shuts down people who do, supports equal rights, but still has some subconscious racist thoughts in their mind that can influence their actions. [Like the tests that have been done regarding implicit association.](http://www.science20.com/news_articles/implicit_association_test_are_you_secretly_racist_hint_you_are-92783) > > It’s not that the school is necessarily filled with bigoted idiot administrators who want to get all the darn Middle Easterners out, it’s just some of them saw the clock and thought bomb, and didn’t think about why their mind went to that place. And it’s probably also combined with bad school policy/zero tolerance type rules, and I know that stupid policies and stupid rules are the scourge of many schools. > > There definitely could be context that would make their actions make more sense, but I don’t know why they wouldn’t have said it if there was. And even if the story is taken as it’s been presented so far, I don’t think the administrators or teachers should be burned at the stake or fired or anything, I just hope that they and others start thinking things through a big more. > > You’ve mentioned the father in this case being some sort of activist or publicity hound, where are you getting that? I did a google search for Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, from 1/1/2000 to 9/12/2015, so that the recent news stories relating to the kid’s clock didn’t come up, and not a whole lot comes up. I was expecting a bunch of Quanell X type stories to come up, but there’s just a story about him running for President of Sudan, a few stories about him debating Terry Jones about burning Korans, and then various Linked-In or resume type pages. If he is some sort of activist always inserting himself into news stories I would be suspicious, but as far as I can tell, that doesn’t seem to be the case here, but maybe I’m missing something. Probably one of the more thoughtful posts I’ve read on the matter. However, what you describe is HUMAN nature and is not mutually exclusive to white humans. Unfortunately, we only hear about the behavior when it happens to minoroties since it doesn’t seem to be news when it happens to white people too. We can’t assume that the kid wouldn’t have been arrested if he were white, we just wouldn’t be talking about it since it would have been a 3 second blip on the news instead of an outrage. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544/80 "2015-09-19T01:09:32Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > You suck at guessing. Also, at crafting useful analogies. And you suck at moderating. Nobody’s perfect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-brings-a-homemade-clock-to-school/731544.md?page=5)