
Irving, TX ninth grader arrested after taking homemade clock to school - scottkduncan
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-9th-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school-so-you-tried-to-make-a-bomb.ece
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wpietri
I cannot tell you how mad this made me. The racism, the refusal to appreciate
the nerdy kid, the police idiocy, the bad teacher, the horrible
administration. 5 police officers interrogating one 14-year-old who just likes
tinkering because he brought in a clock.

Does anybody know a good way (that is, polite and unlikely to be percieved as
menacing) to send something to the family? I'd totally go in on a giant
AdaFruit gift certificate for the young fellow. Or a scholarship fund. Or
both.

~~~
zecho
[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ws7e8WyQvrsLfhSFvdGot3n9NWK...](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ws7e8WyQvrsLfhSFvdGot3n9NWKfY3XLPBgbHaZDy3k/viewform?c=0&w=1)

~~~
t413
Thanks for this! I offered a FaceTime tour of our scientific robotics labs.
When I was in middle school learning and playing with electronics I would've
loved that.

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20tibbygt06
I am just baffled at the ignorance. Not only does everybody in that school
automatically assumed it was a bomb, but the police has the audacity to: "They
led Ahmed into a room where four other police officers waited. He said an
officer he’d never seen before leaned back in his chair and remarked: “Yup.
That’s who I thought it was.”"

The engineering teacher advising him to not show anyone else is just sad. He
just wants to show people his passion, but everybody else's inability to for
one second think that maybe this kid has great potential, rather think that he
made a bomb, because what else could he possibly be making. This is
infuriating.

You can buy your own damn clock kit on Amazon for $6!
[http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Production-Suite-
Clock-…/…/](http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Production-Suite-Clock-…/…/)

How are these people in these positions?

~~~
brador
It's not ignorance, it's malice.

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orbitur
You can imagine how proud he was, he really wanted to show off his clock. I
can think of a few times I got shut down by bored adults when I wanted to
present something I built.

But he wasn't met with boredom, he was met with an arrest. Police still
threatening charges.

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zecho
Anil Dash started a document for folks to show support. He says he'll be in
touch with the family soon.

[https://twitter.com/anildash/status/644000575617658881](https://twitter.com/anildash/status/644000575617658881)

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fiatmoney
Foley artists and prop guys are so responsible for this (obviously not
morally).

Guns don't "sound like guns" (pew! pew! click!), bombs don't "look like bombs"
(red dynamite strapped to a modernist circuit board with dramatic technicolor
wiring), drowning doesn't "look like drowning" (dramatic flailing & yelling)
etc. etc.

"Mr. X, it's like you're not a real teacher! You haven't even given a dramatic
monologue about believing in myself yet!"

~~~
cholantesh
That's what I was thinking. "It looks like a movie bomb." Which, were it an
actual bomb, would defeat the fucking purpose!

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4h53n
Would you like to see a kid wearing NASA t-shirt and handcuffs? Go ahead...
[https://twitter.com/anildash/status/644020453724585984](https://twitter.com/anildash/status/644020453724585984)

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rohunati
You know it's bad when real headlines sound like they're from the Onion...

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xenadu02
Irving; that's all you really need to know. In Plano or at the Dallas magnet
school downtown he'd have been celebrated.

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Animats
Irving, TX's Irving high school[1] has 34 athletic coaches[2], so you can see
their priorities. I can't find any course descriptions on their site, other
than a few online courses. ("Web design - Learn industry-standard software
including Adobe Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Flash with helpful videos.")

[1] [http://www.irvingisd.net/Domain/8](http://www.irvingisd.net/Domain/8) [2]
[http://www.irvingisd.net/Page/6032](http://www.irvingisd.net/Page/6032)

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yitchelle
I hope that this arrest does not go onto his records and create some red tape
nightmare for the future.

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arghbleargh
> "He just wants to invent good things for mankind,” said Ahmed’s father,
> Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, who immigrated from Sudan and occasionally returns
> there to run for president.

Wait... run for president?

~~~
saljam
it's not unusual for people to occasionally return to their country of origin
to engage in politics. quite often the reason they're abroad is the security
risk involved in being in opposition to the political status quo.

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gremlinsinc
This experience, may make the boy turn into a terrorist- -being racially
profiled..I could imagine someone being like "well they think I'm already a
terrorist, might as well not let them down...' \-- I mean seriously -- I hope
the cops, and principle have their arses sued off for this crap.

~~~
yardie
Or he could become an activist. Or he could do nothing, take the slight, and
mor forward with his life. No one simply becomes a terrorist. They are
groomed. They are sought out and programmed.

Tsaernev was heavily influenced by his older brother who was heavily
influenced by members of his mosque and I would say his own family. I doubt
Ahmed is going this route. He's been contacted by CAIR, Anil Dash, and is a
raised by an activist father. I don't see extremism in his future. Far too
many people care about him.

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SN76477
Poor kid. Idiot adults.

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guyzero
Idiots vote for Trump to "make America great again" and when a smart American
kids tries to build something they arrest him.

