14-year-old Texas boy arrested for bringing homemade clock

[Sam]

But isn't this what he described?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9873[/ATTACH]

That's a bigger one but not what's being used on the kid's clock.

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If I'm not mistaken, it's that square block with the white label and the power cord connected with what looked like electrical tape.

[Sam]

I use my iphone. I have ZILLIONS of alarm settings, time zones, wake to music, etc...

Oh, man. Just try to run that thing on a CMOS battery.

[Sea of red]

but the schools knew you were bringing it didn't they SoR you did nto just dhow up with it with out letting them know you were bringing it. no one new the kid was bringing his clock in.

Nope. They had no idea I was coming. My brother was talking up a storm about how cool I was () and my hobby at the time. I ended up bringing some solid fuel and a level 2 rocket to the school; none of the kids or teachers panicked.

Take that same scenario and make me an Arabic man...

[Cow Poke]

I've known most of my kid's school teachers and administrators on a fairly decent level. I can't see any of them having a problem with this. Out of an abundance of caution, I'd understand that request.

But why should they have to MAKE that request, Sam? Why wouldn't you just make the call and say, "Hey, Goober made a really neat project, and he wants to show it to you - try to pretend to be excited*, ok?" THAT would be reasonable thing to do.

I knew my kids' teachers, too, but we're not talking about Podunk Holler, here - we're talking Irving, Texas - which is, for all intents and purposes, DALLAS. (It's in Dallas County)

Of course, that's not the tack that this school took. They called the police and the kid got arrested.

And, as I stated before, that may well be their "zero tolerance" protocol - I'm trying to verify that.

AND, if I'm a Muslim - and my kid is a Muslim, I would hope I'd be savvy enough to know that this adds another element to the equation. Yes, it SHOULDN'T in a perfect (or even reasonable) world, but that's not the world we live in.




*I'm kidding about that part

[Cow Poke]

Take that same scenario and make me an Arabic man...

I wish you'd get off that kick - not all Arabs are Muslims, and not all Muslims are Arabs.

[Cow Poke]

Oh, man. Just try to run that thing on a CMOS battery.

The CMOS batter would be the backup, Sam, not the main power. I don't know of anything but extremely low power equipment that runs on CMOS as primary power.

[Teallaura]

Nope. They had no idea I was coming. My brother was talking up a storm about how cool I was () and my hobby at the time. I ended up bringing some solid fuel and a level 2 rocket to the school; none of the kids or teachers panicked.

Take that same scenario and make me an Arabic man...

My high school wouldn't have panicked - but you wouldn't have sat down to dinner that night.


And had you been one of my parent's kids, you also wouldn't have sat down the following night...

[Sam]

But why should they have to MAKE that request, Sam? Why wouldn't you just make the call and say, "Hey, Goober made a really neat project, and he wants to show it to you - try to pretend to be excited*, ok?" THAT would be reasonable thing to do.

I knew my kids' teachers, too, but we're not talking about Podunk Holler, here - we're talking Irving, Texas - which is, for all intents and purposes, DALLAS. (It's in Dallas County)


And, as I stated before, that may well be their "zero tolerance" protocol - I'm trying to verify that.

AND, if I'm a Muslim - and my kid is a Muslim, I would hope I'd be savvy enough to know that this adds another element to the equation. Yes, it SHOULDN'T in a perfect (or even reasonable) world, but that's not the world we live in.

*I'm kidding about that part

Because bringing in a homemade electronics project in 9th grade isn't a big deal. This is what Sea of Red is complaining about concerning the irrational culture of fear you and others are arguing should be our default. Might as well be banning backpacks because they can conceal guns and we all know high schoolers have brought guns in their backpacks before. It's a weird control thing that also carries a strong tint of bigotry in its application, as you yourself note here.

I'm not going to accept, as a default, some hyper-protectionist standard that gets applied primarily to minority groups. That's not an appropriate system. It's not much different, to be frank, than the videos of reactions to black individuals practicing open-carry juxtaposed with white individuals doing the same.

[Sea of red]

My high school wouldn't have panicked - but you wouldn't have sat down to dinner that night.


And had you been one of my parent's kids, you also wouldn't have sat down the following night...

Oh what, you're going to have me arrested, over a completely legal hobby?

I sat down to dinner that night and all of the kids got a kick out of it to the extent, that I ended up bringing the school to rocket launch.

[Sam]

The CMOS batter would be the backup, Sam, not the main power. I don't know of anything but extremely low power equipment that runs on CMOS as primary power.

An iPhone running on a CMOS backup battery will not serve you well or long, I can promise! Those are used to retain data on the CMOS RAM while power is off ... trying to run an iPhone speaker or a display on a button battery ... yikes.

[Sea of red]

Because bringing in a homemade electronics project in 9th grade isn't a big deal. This is what Sea of Red is complaining about concerning the irrational culture of fear you and others are arguing should be our default. Might as well be banning backpacks because they can conceal guns and we all know high schoolers have brought guns in their backpacks before. It's a weird control thing that also carries a strong tint of bigotry in its application, as you yourself note here.

I'm not going to accept, as a default, some hyper-protectionist standard that gets applied primarily to minority groups. That's not an appropriate system. It's not much different, to be frank, than the videos of reactions to black individuals practicing open-carry juxtaposed with white individuals doing the same.

This country is for the free - not the fearful.

Like I said: the terrorists have won.

[Teallaura]

Oh what, you're going to have me arrested, over a completely legal hobby?

I sat down to dinner that night and all of the kids got a kick out of it to the extent, that I ended up bringing the school to rocket launch.

Arrested? Good grief no - but bringing flammables, chemicals, box cutters and anything else that could hurt other kids if you got stupid with it got you in trouble. Proceeding to show off with it guaranteed trouble.

That trouble usually ended with a trip to the office and a heart to heart with a particularly unsympathetic piece of wood.

Yes, it really is a wonder Rogue survived high school - for more reason than one.

[Cow Poke]

Because bringing in a homemade electronics project in 9th grade isn't a big deal. This is what Sea of Red is complaining about concerning the irrational culture of fear you and others are arguing should be our default.

No, Sam, you got that WAY wrong - I am NOT arguing it should be the default. That's just dumb. I'm living in the real world instead of the pretend one that you and SoR WISH you lived in.

Might as well be banning backpacks because they can conceal guns and we all know high schoolers have brought guns in their backpacks before.

A lot of schools a while back made the kids carry transparent backpacks - not sure if that's still the rule or not.

It's a weird control thing that also carries a strong tint of bigotry in its application, as you yourself note here.

It is what it is. I can make it more complicated, or I can use some wisdom, understand the system, and focus on education instead of theatrics.

I'm not going to accept, as a default, some hyper-protectionist standard that gets applied primarily to minority groups.

Yeah, cause it's WAY better to pitch a fit and fight the system and have drama than just exhibit some common sense.

That's not an appropriate system. It's not much different, to be frank, than the videos of reactions to black individuals practicing open-carry juxtaposed with white individuals doing the same.

Say WHAT?

Sam, don't you think educators have enough challenges without making things more difficult?

[Sea of red]

That, my dear SoR, is in fact, an investigation. So we agree an investigation was indeed warranted.




Of course, I do it better!

So why didn't it end there? Why call the cops and take this kid to the city jailhouse over an absolutely safe device? See, that's the problem. Neither myself, Justin, Sam, Whag, or anybody on my side has said not to ask questions - that's perfectly acceptable. It's when people started to panic to the point that the cops were called. What if that kid got shot by a trigger happy cop? What if he had freaked out over the pressure interrogating and done something foolish like kids do? You don't bring the police into a situation like that unless you've got an emergency - and this wasn't one. Like I said: people are going to get hurt over a case of mistaken identity if this keeps up - that's the real danger.

[Cow Poke]

Yes, it really is a wonder Rogue survived high school - for more reason than one.

At the end of my sophomore year of high school, I was called into the principal's office and given a choice -- "you can enroll in the high school across town and try a fresh start, or you can drop out now and not come back". I was thrilled, and opted to drop out and not come back. Mom wasn't so thrilled. She went ballistic.

I ended up "starting fresh" at the high school across town which was 60% black and 30% Mexican. I decided I'd behave and focus on education.