9th grader arrested for "bomb"

[Kheldarson]

He actually built a clock.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/commu...-to-school.ece

He wanted to show his engineering teacher what he could do, so he put together a clock. It was found by another teacher, who confiscated it.

He was then taken to the office and confronted by police who questioned him and eventually led him out in handcuffs.

Oh, and the student's name is Ahmed Mohamed.

I agree that they were right to investigate, but beyond that, it was mishandled entirely.

The saddest thing for me, though, is that he says he'll never take another invention to school.

[Jetfire]

Hopefully the big Public Outcry Clue By Four the school is about to be hit with will sink in.

In the mean time, I'm mainly hoping this kid won't lose his love of engineering that lead him to make this project in the first place.

The silver lining from this, is that he's caught the attention from the folks at NASA and probably from many other locations, so he should be set going forward.

[Shangri-laschild]

The concern was, what was this thing built for?

....it's a clock. It's for telling time. What an idiot. This whole thing is a complete joke, I can't see how they would have any grounds to charge him later and saying they still could seems somewhat insane.

[BrenDAnn]

I read the article, and this whole thing just boggles me. First of all, why wouldn't they, I don't know, ask the engineering teacher who he showed the clock to at first? No, let's panic, assume the brown kid is going to kill everyone, and arrest and embarrass him. Poor kid. As a sidenote, the argument in the comments is stupid in itself. Most support the kid, but there are some ignorant folks there. The whole thing is enough to give someone a stupidity-induced headache!

[Greenday]

It's a circuit board, some wires, and a digital clock. Even if it was components for a bomb (Which it obviously wasn't because 9th grader), where's the explosive? Where's the method of initiation?

[Jetfire]

As someone on another board said, his school just got POTUS-served.

President ObamaVerified account
@POTUS
Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.

Chris Hadfield also bought tickets and sent an invite.

Chris HadfieldVerified account
@Cmdr_Hadfield
Hi @IStandWithAhmed ! I'd love you to join us for our science show Generator in Toronto on 28 Oct. There's a ticket waiting for you.

[Kheldarson]

Looks like the case has been dropped and closed. Bonus photo of the "bomb"

https://twitter.com/KenKalthoffNBC5/...281537/photo/1

[s_stabeler]

while I can see who you might want to look twice at it- the photo doesn't look like a clock at first glance- there was no reason for the kid to be arrested. As has been pointed out, there was no explosive, and so it quite obviously isn't a bomb.

[MadMike]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- the truly scare part is that these are the people who are supposed to be educating our kids.

[Talon]

As someone on another board said, his school just got POTUS-served.

Uh-oh. Now that the POTUS has commented, I expect the fine folks at the Fake Noise network and other right-wing screech monkeys will go into PR mode. The kid's a secret democratic plant designed to make a red state like Texas look bad. Mooslim terrorists will be emboldened now to enroll in middle schools and bring their scary bombs with them, and... Benghazi!

Blah blah blah, it's all becoming so routine.

Looks like the case has been dropped and closed. Bonus photo of the "bomb"

I wonder if the kid's photo/fingerprints/arrest record will be voluntarily expunged? Somehow I doubt it.

[Kheldarson]

I wonder if the kid's photo/fingerprints/arrest record will be voluntarily expunged? Somehow I doubt it.

At the least, he may be able to get them expunged as an adult. Not much consolation, but some.

[Aragarthiel]

Sadly, it really doesn't matter if the records are expunged. Now that it's been all over the news, any future employers will be able to google his name and see "student" "clock" "bomb" "school." If that doesn't outright exclude him from getting hired, it will at least bring up some questions in an interview.

[Gravekeeper]

We had to make shit like that in engineering class when I was in high school. We made our own circuit boards and had to turn em into simple stuff like clocks. I can promise that mine probably looked far more alarming than this poor kid's.

Also, the second layer of unspoken stupidity here is that the idiots involved are going the "bomb" route based on what they think bomb looks like. Do they seriously think bombers/terrorists would wire up a helpful digital clock to let you know just how long before it goes off? This isn't an 80s action movie.

Not to mention the cops. They sent five officers to arrest a 14 year old geek. FIVE.

Sadly, it really doesn't matter if the records are expunged. Now that it's been all over the news, any future employers will be able to google his name and see "student" "clock" "bomb" "school." If that doesn't outright exclude him from getting hired, it will at least bring up some questions in an interview.

Honestly? I doubt it'll be a problem. Any place a kid this smart would want to work would be smart enough to skim over that bullshit and go "You got tickets straight from Commander Hadfield AND invited to White House? Fuck ya, you're hired!".

[TheHuckster]

Honestly? I doubt it'll be a problem. Any place a kid this smart would want to work would be smart enough to skim over that bullshit and go "You got tickets straight from Commander Hadfield AND invited to White House? Fuck ya, you're hired!".

Plus anyone who is stupid enough to not hire him or think he is a risk is probably an employer he doesn't want to have anyways.

Engineering is one of the most demanded jobs, especially for talented and skilled work. He's going to do just fine.

[Talon]

Aaaaand right on cue, enter the fake noise network:

http://mediamatters.org/video/2015/0...e-tx-te/205622
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/09/fo...reaction-ahmed

TANTAROS: Ahmed is a smart kid. He's probably going to go to MIT and make a ton of money, but he did a really dumb thing and brought it to school

Riiiight. No bomb squad called in, no evacuation for a supposed bomb threat. But Ahmed's the stupid one. Whatever.

Actually I'm surprised Fox didn't do more to villify the kid. Then again, the week isn't over yet.