Inventing While Muslim

Parent Cafe
381

What evasiveness? Taking it directly to his engineering teacher and saying that it was a clock? SHowing it to his English teacher after class to explain why it beeped during class and saying it was a clock? Telling everyone who asked that it was a clock?

Where do you get that he was “evasive”?

Oh, do you mean because the four cops who interrogated him without his parents or a lawyer said he wasn’t able to provide a “broader” explanation, other than “I put together this clock to show my engineering teacher”?

Of course, you are also the person who invented the “fact” that William Petit was secretly guilty of planning the murders of his wife and children. And that Colin Imbrie forcibly jammed the girl into a closet. Hmmmmm.

382

Yeah, I think it’s reasonable to expect a college educated individual to recognize what’s under the hood of an alarm clock. I also expect science teachers to know Huck Finn isn’t really a travelogue.

I think a true education in the post WWII era includes science (and literature and a whole bunch of stuff).

So yeah, I do think every person calling themselves educated should have enough on boil to visit a Radio Shack and recognize the genus if not species of most of the stuff in Nerd Corner. …and if they don’t recognize these things, I expect them to ASK, not wait several hours, glaciate to an unsupportable conclusion, then in desperation simultaneously punch both the “fearmongering” and “panic” buttons on speed dial.

Edit: clarity, spelling un-autocorrect

383

In defense of the poor English teacher, it was evident that s/he did not think it was a bomb. If so, s/he would have reacted much more precipitately. The teacher apparently thought that either a) it might be intended to be a hoax bomb, or b) it might violate the school rules, or c) both. I don’t think this thinking is far-fetched. I do think it was something that could have been resolved in 5 minutes in the principal’s office with the two teachers and the student in attendance.

Calling the cops and everything that cascaded from that poor decision was the problem. And I’m willing to bet it was NOT the English teacher who made that decision.

384

Is there anything new to be added to this issue? If not, sure seems like a lot of wash, rinse and repeat. And FWIW I doubt I’d know the inner workings of an alarm clock and the Radio Shack nearby closed eons ago, so no roadtrip planned there.

385

PCB - printed circuit board, visible every time you change the batteries in your remote control or smoke detector, take the back cover off your phone, or walk into Fry’s. My social circle is pretty broad, mostly non-technical, but I doubt I could find anyone I know over 8 and under 80 years old who has never seen one. Many call them “computer boards.” I would guess that rich people who don’t have to change their own batteries or eject their own DVDs might not recognize one. You don’t have to be an astrophysicist to recognize a star.

The transformer is the blocky metal thing in the picture (might not work: http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en/transformers/power-transformers/786735) and were in all things electronic before about the early 1990s, usually hidden inside plastic cases (the old, heavy “wall wart” chargers). I know these aren’t broadly recognized but, seeing one, it would be hard to distort it into something really dangerous.

386

College educated. Not interested in the least in recognizing the inner workings of an alarm clock, since I don’t need to take apart alarm clocks in the first place, because that’s what I use my smartphone for, and if that breaks, I call the nice folks at Apple and they get me a new phone. (I did, however, do that potato-powering-a-clock thing with my kids when they were little, though.) Here’s what I need to know about the clock feature: how to set it, and how to pick a ringtone that doesn’t irritate me when it jolts me out of sleep. The end.

And when I’ve gone into Radio Shack, I had no interest in becoming a techie – I just wanted to find the foreign wall converter or a new set of earbuds. See, here’s the thing that some of you techies don’t get – the rest of us just want simple solutions that work for us, and we’re not interested in the inner workings of alarm clocks and printed circuit boards just because you are. So sorry!

387

I thought it was an excellent point that it is probably part of a well rounded education, like being familiar with Twain’s main writings.

I’m going to Radio Shack. :wink:

388

So a person who has laid eyeballs on a circuitboard is supposed to instantly know what it is hooked up to, designed to be and capable of doing. And a person who has seen an episode of ER is supposed to know how to diagnose and treat pericardial effusion. Riiight…

389

I completely disagree. There are actually probably very few college educated individuals who recognize what’s under the hood of an alarm clock, will have no need of that information ever, and can contribute positive things to the world without knowing that.

And I agree that the English teacher probably had zero to do with calling the police. I don’t know where this all went wonky, but I’m guessing once it got to the Principal’s office. Obviously don’t know that for sure.

Handcuffs, not okay, arrest ridiculous, and questioning a minor without his parents present?! Did none of these police see the movie The Client where Susan Sarandon totally busts Tommy Lee Jones’ behind for doing just that? That was such a great scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LvPdTDdgqw

Levity aside, I keep expecting to see the police reports published where we finally see the input of the various teachers and administration. If nothing else, it might clear up how this went from minor rule breaking to anyone believing it was reasonable to get LE involved, much less the insanity that ensued once the police were brought in.

390

“I can’t believe you people don’t know what a printed circuit board looks like and how to tell one designed for ‘evil’ apart from one that is harmless” is such incredible navel-gazing.

391

And what are great books?
If not a sort of navel-gazing?

392

To each his own navel-gazing.

393

Navel gazing or not, radio shack visit or not, it doesn’t matter. They DID know it wasn’t a bomb.

394

"So a person who has laid eyeballs on a circuitboard is supposed to instantly know what it is hooked up to, designed to be and capable of doing. "

Actually, apparently they did, apparently both the first period teacher, and the English teacher, and the Principal knew it wasn’t a bomb, it was why they didn’t even bother evacuating the school. Among other things, no one designs a bomb with a power cord, that would be one of the dumbest devices ever made.

Which is what makes what happened even more troubling, the cops were not called because they thought it was a bomb (telling? The bomb squad was not called in…if you think a device is real, you evacuate the school and the bomb squad is called in, not some local local cops), the school called the cops because they were claiming the kid did this as a hoax, the cops admitted that, and so did the school…this despite the fact that what the kid did, as a hoax, makes no sense, and you don’t need a degree in electronics or explosives to determine that, his actions do. Who the heck is going to show a device to a teacher, and tell them it is a clock, when they really want to do a hoax? The whole point of a hoax is to get mass reaction, and showing someone the device and saying it is a clock isn’t going to freak out the entire school, whereas leaving it someplace for someone to find would, someone would find, it, panic, evacuate the school, call the cops, etc…a good analogy is pulling the fire alarm, a kid doing that isn’t going to tell someone "I am going to pull the fire alarm’ then do it. It is like putting a paper bag full of dog poop on the stop of someone’s house, lighting it on fire, and having a note on the door saying the bag is full of dog poop, person isn’t going to stamp it out then, telling someone what the device is, even showing it, is not a very good hoax.

At worst, if he violated policy (a policy that doesn’t seem to exist, given the student code of conduct, which says nothing about electronic devices), it might warrant a suspension, but the local constabulary? Give me a break.

395

“Among other things, no one designs a bomb with a power cord, that would be one of the dumbest devices ever made”

I’m not mechanical at all. The presence or absence of a power cord wouldn’t mean anything to me. I am neither defending nor excoriating the school for what they did. But HTH would I possibly know whether some homemade contraption could be a bomb or not? What - do bombs come with little pop-up signs that say “this is a bomb”? .

396 


10   Horrible Event Occurs (school shooting, bombing, etc.)
20   Wall-To-Wall News Coverage. CALL Monday Morning Quarterback Subroutine
30   React Emotionally
35   Sue the Blazes Out of School District
40   Pass Zero Tolerance Policies Which Prohibit Use of Common Sense
50   Keep Emotions High. Arrest 6 Year-Olds Who Point Fingers And Say Bang!

55   Let Time Pass. Allow News Media's 10 Minute Attention Span to Lapse

60   Arrest Muslim Student Who Brings Electronic Components to School
70   Wall-To-Wall News Coverage. CALL Monday Morning Quarterback Subroutine
80   React Emotionally
85   Sue the Blazes Out of School District
90   Undo Previous Policies

100  GOTO 10
397

So even if they “knew” it wasn’t explosive, who is to say what they knew, didn’t know or feared it could or couldn’t do. Has their school policy been published anywhere?

398

The school is in deep @&$*^% no matter what they thought or determined!

If they suspected it was a bomb, why there was no evacuation? Screw up.

If they were sure it was not, why was the kid taken away in handcuffs and interrogated without his parents present? Screw up.

Screw up either way. Guess what else is almost a given? It was not the teachers who got it into the mess. The administrators.

399

And here’s a couple of articles showing this incident isn’t the first time racial and religious prejudice played a role in the conduct of the Irving School District educational admins and law enforcement:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/schooled/2015/09/16/ahmed_mohamed_s_school_it_was_afraid_of_islam_well_before_it_thought_a_clock.html

http://irvingblog.dallasnews.com/2012/12/chain-email-prompts-35-minute-report-to-school-board-on-islam-in-irving-isd-curriculum.html/

400

OMG…there’s lint in my navel!!!