
Ahmed Mohamed will not face charges related to device [pdf] - rmason
http://www.irvingisd.net/cms/lib010/TX01917973/Centricity/Domain/4/Media%20Release%20091615%20MacArthur%20Student%20Will%20Not%20Face%20Charges.pdf
======
blizkreeg
I'm glad Ahmed got all the support and encouragement he did but not one person
of note/power, including Obama and Hillary Clinton (who offered their cute
tweets) have talked of punishing, penalizing, or in the very least
reprimanding the officers and teachers who put him through this. How is that?

It's criminal to handcuff and interrogate a 14-yr old in front of his entire
class and school when they found nothing to implicate him. It's an
unconscionable act. These people are not only stupid (look at that
'suspicious' device), they are abusing power with no repercussions.

"The student was handcuffed for his safety and for the safety of the
officers". Are they out of their mind?

~~~
jcfrei
>I'm glad Ahmed got all the support and encouragement he did but not one
person of note/power, including Obama and Hillary Clinton (who offered their
cute tweets) have talked of punishing, penalizing, or in the very least
reprimanding the officers and teachers who put him through this. How is that?

Maybe because the world has bigger problems than one police officer and a
teacher acting out of line. It's a story the internet loves and perpetuates
but frankly absolutely unimportant.

~~~
dsugarman
Police culture is currently toxic and is a danger to all US citizens

~~~
jessaustin
I would say to all residents of and visitors to USA.

------
mikeash
It's amazing how these assholes are incapable of admitting that they're wrong.

"Attached is a picture of the device that shows it was suspicious in nature."

I bet they don't even realize they just sound like idiots.

~~~
rajbot
They _knew_ it was not a bomb. They were bullying him. If the school or police
had actually thought it was dangerous they would have:

1\. Evacuated the school 2\. Called the bomb squad

~~~
bentruyman
Their justification is in the linked PDF: "Under Texas law, a person is guilty
of possessing a hoax bomb if he possesses a device that is intended to cause
anyone to be alarmed or a reaction of any type by law enforcement officers."

~~~
escherize
This is another way that governments (those with the monopoly of the use of
force) expand their reach.

By putting the precipice of wrongdoing not on what happened but on the
reaction of state agents, it becomes extremely difficult to call out bullies
like this.

~~~
bentruyman
I read that line as more along the lines of yelling "fire" in a movie theater.
Clearly there was no intent of causing hysteria with Ahmed's suitcase clock,
which I assume is why he was freed. But, clearly, this shouldn't have gone as
far as it did.

------
lfuller
"The student only would say it was a clock and was not forthcoming at that
time about any other details."

What did they expect him to say? It WAS only a clock. There were no other
details regarding its nature or use.

~~~
rhizome
Note how they impugn his character, implying he was and is less than candid.
He couldn't win: either he implicates himself, justifying their actions, or
they call him a liar, excusing their idiocy.

------
codezero
This should have included some introspection on the part of the school and/or
police force involved. Instead they are digging in behind the narrative that
their fear was reasonable and their reaction was justifiable, and that Ahmed
somehow withheld information that would have changed their mind at some point.

This is classic school faculty behavior: do it our way or else. He could have
'played ball' and explained in detail the project he worked on, but he didn't.
He shouldn't have to either. They can expel him or send him home, but they
went further, to teach him a lesson for being 'smart'.

It's clear they didn't fear the device. As others have pointed out, the school
wasn't evacuated. They knew it wasn't a bomb.

~~~
plonh
He did explain in detail. The only part he left out was the not true part
about it being a real or fake bomb.

------
obilgic
Honestly, I'm not worried for Ahmed at all, in 15 years he will be in much
better shape compared to 99% of the population. I'm just concerned about all
the other kids given those teacher and school admins.

~~~
blizkreeg
You're wrong, I'm sorry to say. The other kids will be just fine. He will be
the one who will remember this and it _could_ affect his life in ways that we
can't say yet.

~~~
DarkTree
I don't think the parent was commenting on how the other students would be
more affected by this incident, but will affected simply by attending a school
with horrible administration. He, on the other hand, has been invited to
places like Facebook by Zuckerberg himself because of this incident. Not the
worst outcome.

~~~
vfdfv
> invited to places like Facebook by Zuckerberg

Ah so now Ahmed will get to see the worst of the worst on a different end of
the spectrum.

------
bane
I really _really_ hope he wins a multi-million dollar lawsuit for wrongful
arrest and turns it into a billion dollar company that makes precision
timepieces.

~~~
patrickaljord
Poor kid has been humiliated and called a genius inventor on same day, imagine
the pressure he'll get to live up to this expectation as a future
engineer/scientist.

~~~
scintill76
I feel bad about the pressure he's already under -- everyone wants him to show
off his clock and/or himself. Judging by this
[[http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/16/9341309/ahmed-mohamed-
scho...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/16/9341309/ahmed-mohamed-school-
transfer)] I guess he's up to it though.

------
joezydeco
It seems to me that Ahmed's story is turning out to be this perfect
intersection of zero-tolerance, racism, technological illiteracy, and police
overreaction. It's an entire decade of nonsense in a tidy little package.

------
tinalumfoil
What's really shitty about this isn't that the school or police overreacted at
first. It isn't that this somehow affects Islamic-American relations or
American-Muslim citizens. It isn't even that this may have discouraged Ahmed
from future creativity. What's so concerning about this story is that if it
wasn't picked up by the news, a defenseless 14-year-old would have a criminal
record for bringing a personal project to school.

Situations like this make me think of all the similar incidents that never got
picked up by the news because some terrorist was shot or the stock market
dipped and the story was no longer important enough to report.

------
warrenb
Child Arrested Because Adults are Stupid:
[https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/09/child_arreste...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/09/child_arrested_.html)

------
tomlock
This is so stupid. This is as much a bomb as a disassembled alarm clock is.
Everyone involved should be fired, from the school through the police
department. Words cannot describe how terrible this situation is.

~~~
duskwuff
> This is as much a bomb as a disassembled alarm clock is.

In large part because that is _precisely_ what it is!

------
markbnj
>> Attached is a picture of the device that shows it was suspicious in nature

Please. Suspicious if you've never seen electronics outside of a case,
perhaps.

~~~
krapp
To play devil's advocate, though, most people have probably never seen
electronics out of a case.

Although the police really have no excuse not to know what a bomb does and
doesn't look like.

------
InclinedPlane
The real problem is that the system that bubbled up this exceptional and
notable instance of idiocy has just been churning away day in, day out for
years and decades and affects a tremendous number of people's lives. Schools
that are just industrialized baby-sitting facilities where kids are subjected
to so much useless busy work it's a wonder that any enthusiasm for knowledge
remains. And school and legal systems which treat non-white kids as terrorists
or gangsters until proven innocent. Zero-tolerance, zero-compassion, zero-
humanity, zero-education. It's shocking that the system isn't even more broken
than it is given how terrible so many of the components are.

~~~
Beltiras
It's a little ridiculous thinking that institutions supposedly founded to
increase intelligence insist on being governed by rules demanding it's
absence.

------
JBlue42
General question: How come we're able to see his photo plastered everywhere? I
thought there were laws about identifying minors?

~~~
vermontdevil
The family released the photo not the school.

------
Killswitch
> there is no evidence to support the perception he intended to create alarm.

Good to know he didn't make an alarm clock.

------
ryanlol
Looking at the photo of the device I certainly can't see how that looks even
remotely like a bomb. Nothing resembling an explosive payload or a detonator
in there.

------
glimmung
"Attached is a picture of the device that shows it was suspicious in nature."

Nope, it shows no such thing - I see bare electronics, that's all. I really do
think that the idea that that is intrinsically "suspicious" needs to be
challenged, or better yet ridiculed.

~~~
plonh
Or best, educated.

------
Cshelton
Last Insaw about an hour ago, he is still suspended through Thursday
(tomorrow). Is this still true? I don't understand why if the charges were
dropped...

~~~
dalke
The school system and the court system are two different systems. It's
possible to be suspended without being arrested. It's possible to be arrested
without being suspended.

~~~
JoshTriplett
And if you think _court systems_ have trouble admitting wrongdoing, they're
nothing compared to school systems.

------
vubuntu
The small metallic type suitcase/box may have been a perfect container

1) To cram in all the ugly looking wires inside while the outer appearance of
the product looks polished 2) Nice platform to tether the circuit boards etc
to keep them in place 3) Doubles up as a carry box to move around his project
and display/show to friends , teachers etc

On the flip side

1) There is subtle difference between timers vs clocks 2) Doesn't look
anything like a traditional clock, but more like a James Bondish
suitcase/gadget, especially if I just saw the picture of the device alone with
no other context given to me.

Having said that, , I am in no way defending the action of police or the
school.

What is needed was context, ability to do minimum analysis and common sense.
And the teachers, school administration, police had plenty of that. It could
have been a simple matter of explaining to the kid , while his zeal is
appreciated, to notify his teachers in advance in future, to make sure his
projects don't disturb the class, and to encourage more such
robotic/electronic projects for science fairs etc (appropriate time and place
for everything)

Also unfortunately, due to the current security song and dance every where,
kids (and adults too) have to be taught about being sensitive to fear and
perceptions of others timing/location/context . Even kids may have to be
explained to be sensitive to such things.

May be all or some involved may be bigoted towards the muslim community as the
media or comments suggest and that may have played a role in the escalation.

And may be some(or all) weren't. But generally concerned about past incidents
related to school environments and violence in schools (Shootings etc). Some
of these were perpetrated by fellow students, which can't be discounted in
playing into the fears of those involved in this incident.

We can't say for sure , religion/color was the sole motivation. Some past
violent incidents were perpetrated by white kids/persons. So if it were a
white kid in this situation, can we absolutely discount 100% that similar
amount of concern might have not been triggered in the class teacher's mind,
or the administration or police.

The point is, reasonable benefit of doubt can be given to the teacher, admin,
police for going into a heightened/alert mode.

But what cannot be justified is the failure in subsequent analysis and
diffusion of the tension at every level. The teacher could have clarified the
intention, and diffused the tension and not escalated it after establishing
facts (and the awareness of the enthusiasm and character of a kid of their own
class that they should be familiar with). Or the next level, school
security/admin could have diffused and de-escalated the situation. Or the
police could have done that.

But, no, escalation seems to be a one way process for authority/admin/police
these days. What happened to 'peace keeping' part of their job ?

~~~
caminante
Can folks downvoting this comment explain what you're taking issue with?

I see this post as a thoughtful plea for context and consideration. What am I
missing?

~~~
tomlock
One of the officers made a comment that indicates a certain level of racism.

The police were not fearful enough to evacuate the school, yet made the claim
that this seemed to be a bomb.

Explaining their actions without that context is a bit trite.

~~~
bigiain
To be fair (and I slightly hate myself for speaking up in their defence) the
cops were claiming "bomb hoax", not "bomb".

Of course the police are also claiming "not racially motivated policing", so
as we gauge their level of truthfullness we should keep both those facts in
mind...

~~~
tomlock
My response to that is how did he attempt to perpetrate a hoax? What evidence
did the officers have that his intent was to do so?

~~~
bigiain
He didn't, and none.

The kid did nothing wrong. The supposed "adults" and "authorities" are 100% at
fault here.

------
roymurdock
I'm interested to see if this changes anything.

------
mikelyons
Why does that look so much like a bomb though?

~~~
cdelsolar
How does it look like a bomb?

------
ausjke
A ticking device that is not supposed to be brought to other classes(he was
notified by his science teacher), and is closed up with some string so you can
not see what's inside, and by a 14 year old Muslim student, and suddenly it
starts to tick during a class. If I'm the teacher I will call the cops too.
Yes I know I'm politically incorrect here, and will get down votes for this,
but if I'm the teacher I will do the same, though I do agree the cops can be
much nicer to handle this.

On the other hand, I frequently found to speak your true thoughts here at HN,
it _scares_ me to some extent, because different thoughts here will
immediately be punished by down votes, such as the one above. Maybe it's time
to close my HN account all together.

~~~
Gigablah
Looks like you missed the point entirely. Taking precautions about the device
is understandable, if a bit silly -- and if they had left it at that, this
would be nothing more than a "not The Onion" story to laugh at. What happened
_after_ (the arrest and suspension) is outrageous.

