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

[Sea of red]

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.

Teal, I was like, twenty three when I did that.

[rogue06]

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

I had too much dirt on the faculty.

[Teallaura]

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.

Based on the OP I'd have said (and did) that it was probably 'pass the buck' on steroids. In light of later posts, I am not certain that we're arguing with enough information. The suggestions include: kid panicked/was a teenager and inappropriately responded to inquiry, triggering further inquiry and kid wanted to create a test case (media case?). I don't know. If the OP is correct, I see no reason that the cops should have been called - but if not, then I reserve judgment until I know what the heck we're talking about.

[Teallaura]

Teal, I was like, twenty three when I did that.

Oh... So this WAS a high school campus, right? In that case, yeah, you should have been arrested.
















Half factious. I suspect you broke a few laws doing that.

[Sam]

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.

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

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.

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

Say WHAT?

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

If you're arguing that this is the "real world" where common sense the "way things are" dictate that teachers and school officials treat off-the-shelf electronic projects as a "hoax bomb" worthy of getting the police involved, you're arguing that our default behavior should indeed be an irrational culture of fear where we have to second-guess what are, in other contexts, perfectly normal things. If I go over to someone's house and see a tangle of wires and a LED display, I'm not going to worry about it being a bomb. High school kids are (or sure better be) learning some detailed basic electrical engineering. And if I'm not going to spend every day worrying that some kid in the class stuffed a 9mm in his or her bag to show off at school, I'm not going to worry that some kid's electronic project is really a bomb or that he's intending it to be seen as such.

It's not common sense to assume that sort of TSA-in-everyday life mentality. And it's not like anyone really does. What some people do, however, is shortcut the routine so that they respond to these "threats" when it's a member of the out-group. And that's an even worse world. Not interested in enabling that.

[Teallaura]

I had too much dirt on the faculty.

That probably wasn't the only thing they were afraid of..

[Sea of red]

Oh... So this WAS a high school campus, right? In that case, yeah, you should have been arrested.
















Half factious. I suspect you broke a few laws doing that.

You think I should have been arrested? I hope I've got that wrong.

I broke no laws. So long as the fuel, igniters, and rocket are not together, I can display it to other people.

[rogue06]

That probably wasn't the only thing they were afraid of..

The vice principal once had me arrested when I was a junior. I acted as my own attorney, caught him perjuring himself several times (as in getting in trouble with the judge for it) and had my case dismissed without ever presenting a defense (after filing a motion for dismissal based on a lack of evidence the judge asked to see the transcript of the proceeding, read over them for a minute then tore them in half and dismissed the case after which he told the vice principal to stay behind because he wanted to have a little talk with him).

And believe it or not this was one of the few times I was completely innocent (although I knew who was the guilty party).

[Cow Poke]

If you're arguing that...

I started to write a serious response to this, but you're just being....

Sam, teachers have a hard enough time doing their jobs without difficult parents more focused on "proving a point" than simply having a safe place for their kids to actually learn something.

As I stated earlier, you COULD use a little common sense and let your kids' teacher know he's bringing a rather unusual item to school (you DO agree that not every kid carries a kludgy homemade clock to school in a metal pencil case, right?).... OR you can be a total jerk and just let things happen so you can pitch a fit when somebody thinks it a bit unusual that a kid would bring a rather unusual......

Whatever happened to parents working with teachers in the best interest of the kids?

[Cow Poke]

The vice principal once had me arrested when I was a junior. I acted as my own attorney, caught him perjuring himself several times (as in getting in trouble with the judge for it) and had my case dismissed without ever presenting a defense (after filing a motion for dismissal based on a lack of evidence the judge asked to see the transcript of the proceeding, read over them for a minute then tore them in half and dismissed the case after which he told the vice principal to stay behind because he wanted to have a little talk with him).

And believe it or not this was one of the few times I was completely innocent (although I knew who was the guilty party).

And I genuinely appreciate you not ratting me out.

[Sam]

I started to write a serious response to this, but you're just being....

Sam, teachers have a hard enough time doing their jobs without difficult parents more focused on "proving a point" than simply having a safe place for their kids to actually learn something.

As I stated earlier, you COULD use a little common sense and let your kids' teacher know he's bringing a rather unusual item to school (you DO agree that not every kid carries a kludgy homemade clock to school in a metal pencil case, right?).... OR you can be a total jerk and just let things happen so you can pitch a fit when somebody thinks it a bit unusual that a kid would bring a rather unusual......

Whatever happened to parents working with teachers in the best interest of the kids?

You're moving the goal posts pretty far, here.

(A) Did this kid do anything wrong by bringing his electronics project to school? No.
(B) Did the school and police dramatically overreact to the ensuing situation? Yes.

If you disagree with (A), you've got to come up with more than just this idea of it being common curtesy to overburdened teachers (we can always increase funding to schools to make them less burdened ...); you've got to explain why we should accept a protectionist approach and explain how that approach isn't going to fall primarily on out-group, or minority, kids.

If you disagree with (B), you can't argue that on the basis of curtesy to teachers or school officials; you have to explain why the response was appropriate and why it couldn't have been reasonably handled at a much lower key (e.g., call in the engineering teacher, call the parent).

You haven't been arguing in this thread that there are possible ways to avoid what happened to this kid; no one disagrees with that. You've been arguing that the kid is somehow at fault for the situation or, alternatively, that there isn't enough information to judge the actions of the school officials and police officers, strongly implying that we should be deferring to their judgement on this.

[rogue06]

And I genuinely appreciate you not ratting me out.

smiley shhh.gif Shhhhh.

[Teallaura]

You think I should have been arrested? I hope I've got that wrong.I broke no laws. So long as the fuel, igniters, and rocket are not together, I can display it to other people.

Half factious - no, I don't think you should have been arrested.

[firstfloor]

Officialdom, especially people in uniforms, will sometimes run out of control because procedures take over from normal human common sense. Often it is the old wise head that has to step in to calm things down and there are precious few of those around.

[One Bad Pig]

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.

I agree, this shouldn't be a problem - though in some schools with a knee-jerk zero-tolerance policy it would get you in trouble.

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

A random stranger walking in with it might raise some eyebrows (and an Arabic man would probably be viewed with more suspicion), but a relative of any complexion shouldn't ordinarily be a concern. Rocket motors are more an incendiary than explosive hazard anyway (yeah, you can make them explode, but it takes some planning and setup). Now, if you had several wired together, that would doubtless raise a red flag.


(although there are exceptions, most Arabs are Muslim, and most people probably wouldn't be able to realize the difference)