Awww yeah. Pres. Obama just invited him to the White House via Twitter so he can see the clock.
This actually made me tear up a little. That's my president.
Fuck those racist shit pigs. And I agree with pp, my first comment upon reading this was if they truly thought it was a bomb, why wasnt the squad called and the school evacuated? Fuckers
Post by stephreloaded on Sept 16, 2015 12:47:30 GMT -5
How do you take someone in handcuffs without even making sure that the thing in the box was in fact a bomb? Don't they have bomb squads that would quickly come to deactivate the device? Even if this was a real bomb, this was handled very poorly.
Poor kid. The first thing I would do would be to call his parents.
Post by marriedfilingjoint on Sept 16, 2015 12:58:23 GMT -5
They are saying he was arrested for bringing a hoax bomb to school, not a real bomb. As in, everyone knew it was a clock, but they were saying he brought the clock to school with the intent of making people think he had a bomb. Even though he called it a clock. Repeatedly. But that's why no bomb squad was called and why the school wasn't evacuated.
Just fyi, kids can be questioned at school by administration for anything at all without parental consent.
The rest of it...what bullshit. I suspect it wasn't his engineering teacher who saw and kept his clock. I can totally picture the racist fucking busybody who started the whole mess.
The rest of it...what bullshit. I suspect it wasn't his engineering teacher who saw and kept his clock. I can totally picture the racist fucking busybody who started the whole mess.
"He showed it to his engineering teacher first thing Monday morning and didn’t get quite the reaction he’d hoped for.
“He was like, ‘That’s really nice,’” Ahmed said. “‘I would advise you not to show any other teachers.’”
He kept the clock inside his school bag in English class, but the teacher complained when the alarm beeped in the middle of a lesson. Ahmed brought his invention up to show her afterward.
“She was like, it looks like a bomb,” he said.
“I told her, ‘It doesn’t look like a bomb to me.’”"
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Being the daughter of an electrical engineer, the wife of an electrical engineer, and a HUGE action flick movie fan, I wouldn't have thought at any point "OH NO! This kid made a bomb!" I have so many hacked, homemade electronics that this looks just like that. One of the first things my husband made for me was a digital alarm clock in an old Altoids tin. This is just a bigger version.
The rest of it...what bullshit. I suspect it wasn't his engineering teacher who saw and kept his clock. I can totally picture the racist fucking busybody who started the whole mess.
"He showed it to his engineering teacher first thing Monday morning and didn’t get quite the reaction he’d hoped for.
“He was like, ‘That’s really nice,’” Ahmed said. “‘I would advise you not to show any other teachers.’”
He kept the clock inside his school bag in English class, but the teacher complained when the alarm beeped in the middle of a lesson. Ahmed brought his invention up to show her afterward.
“She was like, it looks like a bomb,” he said.
“I told her, ‘It doesn’t look like a bomb to me.’”"
This tears me up. Can't you just picture him, trying to impress his teacher, probably because he was getting the distinct vibe that she didn't like him?
That looks like so many in progress projects in our house.
This is heartbreaking. H brought projects like that to high school, as did many of the other engineers I know. Every child should have that opportunity.
Huh. That would probably raise my eyebrow too if that's what was presented to me. But then I'd use my brain and think about context and kid.
Lurker coming out of the woodwork to say ditto this. I can understand how someone who isn't familiar with circuitry or DIY electronics might take a look at something like that and go "ZOMG!"
Most of the media coverage that I've seen has suggested that Ahmed brought a clock that was easily discernible as a clock to school and got arrested for it. That wasn't really the case, and if I were the teacher I probably would have asked *any* kid that brought that to class a question or two about it. I might have called the electronics teacher and asked some questions. But, the arrest and trip to the juvenile detention center were totally unnecessary, and I do think THOSE are indicative of racial profiling. A few simple questions could have cleared this up really quickly.
The rest of it...what bullshit. I suspect it wasn't his engineering teacher who saw and kept his clock. I can totally picture the racist fucking busybody who started the whole mess.
"He showed it to his engineering teacher first thing Monday morning and didn’t get quite the reaction he’d hoped for.
“He was like, ‘That’s really nice,’” Ahmed said. “‘I would advise you not to show any other teachers.’”
He kept the clock inside his school bag in English class, but the teacher complained when the alarm beeped in the middle of a lesson. Ahmed brought his invention up to show her afterward.
“She was like, it looks like a bomb,” he said.
“I told her, ‘It doesn’t look like a bomb to me.’”"
This is so heartbreaking. You know he was probably super excited to impress his teacher. He's 14 FFS!
In addition to the White House, he's also been invited to NASA, Google and Facebook. It makes me very happy to see the reactions of support for this kid. Although I haven't heard anything about his suspension being reversed.
This story is making me have a lot of feelings. My dear friend's wife and son finally (after 7 years of waiting) have their visa interview tomorrow and assuming they pass they can fly to the US as early as Friday. But the poor kid has spent his whole life thus far in a place where being a Muslim African kid named Mohammed is normal, like being named Madysn or something. And now he's going to come here to a place where kids like him get harassed and interrogated for being crafty. He'll be an American citizen the moment he sets foot here and he deserves better than that.
Holy crap at the seven year wait for the wife and child of a US citizen. I had heard it was getting longer but that is ridiculous. Did he naturalize during that time?
What's going to happen is the Secret Service is going to usher that kid, clock in hand, right into the Oval Office. And if any SS folks are reading this, please make sure you look at the media with a long, measured look intended for this kid's teachers. Something along the lines of, "Yeah, we're good here."
Post by orangeblossom on Sept 16, 2015 19:35:12 GMT -5
On the flip side, remember the young lady who was arrested last year for her botched science experiment. Even though charges were dropped, the felony still haunts her.
What is up with kids being arrested for science/engineering experiments projects?
Last May, the saga of Kiera Wilmot, a Florida high school student who was arrested and expelled after a science experiment exploded, put a spotlight on schools' zero-tolerance policies. Amid the outrage over her story, charges against her were dropped and she was allowed back in school.
Next week, Wilmot graduates from high school. She's set to participate in a STEM program at Florida Polytechnic University in the fall, according to a press release from the Advancement Project, a civil rights advocacy organization.
But a felony arrest record continues to haunt her. Though criminal charges were dismissed last year, Wilmot says in a video produced by the Advancement Project that "the lawyer says it takes five years to clear each felony off the record."
Wilmot was known as a model student. But she ran into trouble after combining aluminum foil and toilet bowl cleaner in a bottle as a science experiment. The mixture blew off a bottle cap and produced smoke. No one was injured and no property was damaged. Wilmot was charged with creating a chemical explosion on school grounds, and was expelled.
In a blog she wrote for The Huffington Post, Wilmot described the experience.
"They didn't read me any rights. They arrested me after sitting in the office for a couple minutes. They handcuffed me. It cut my wrist, and really hurt sitting on my hands behind my back," wrote Wilmot.
Huh. That would probably raise my eyebrow too if that's what was presented to me. But then I'd use my brain and think about context and kid.
Lurker coming out of the woodwork to say ditto this. I can understand how someone who isn't familiar with circuitry or DIY electronics might take a look at something like that and go "ZOMG!"
Most of the media coverage that I've seen has suggested that Ahmed brought a clock that was easily discernible as a clock to school and got arrested for it. That wasn't really the case, and if I were the teacher I probably would have asked *any* kid that brought that to class a question or two about it. I might have called the electronics teacher and asked some questions. But, the arrest and trip to the juvenile detention center were totally unnecessary, and I do think THOSE are indicative of racial profiling. A few simple questions could have cleared this up really quickly.
Here's the thing- that's the back of the clock after they ripped it all apart. The front of the clock has a giant LED number display, you can make it out in the photo. This is like when they release a "scary" photo of a black teen instead of the one in his Boy Scout uniform. The police are trying to manipulate the narritve. It's disgusting and wrong.
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The thing that pisses me off the most is that the engineering teacher never stepped up.
He knew it was a damn clock. And he knew what it looked like. Enough to tell the kid not to show it to anyone else. Then how about you offer to hold it for him, so nobody gets any stupid ideas.
I hope the next picture I see of this is of him showing Obama his damn clock
I had the same thought!
This is such a shitty situation but I love that all of these people/companies are reaching out to him.