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

[Cow Poke]

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.

MAN, I hate it when I have to agree with you - this time, without caveat!

And that's exactly why "zero tolerance" policies in our schools are problematic.

[Cow Poke]

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

(A) Did this kid do anything wrong by bringing his electronics project to school? No.

Wrong, no. Dumb, yes.

(B) Did the school and police dramatically overreact to the ensuing situation? Yes.

"Dramatically"?

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.

I agree it wasn't "wrong" - I just assert that it was DUMB, but you will defend it, because you have become a worshiper of the clock.

Let us all bow down to the sacred clock! So mote it be!


(yes, I'm being facetious - I'm amazed at this new liberal clock worship)

[Adrift]

I haven't gone through the whole thread, and I have mixed thoughts about the subject myself, but has anyone else seen this video that seems to be getting pretty popular?

To summarize, Ahmed Mohammed didn't invent anything as sometimes claimed. He didn't find spare parts laying around and ingeniously MacGyver them together. He literally took the housing off of the clock pictured below and put the bare guts into a case.



If you ask me, having once been a terrible and crazy 14 year old kid (I once burned down a portion of a local park with a molotov cocktail, and threw some smoke bombs into an industrial company's ventilation which received a firefighter response), he was purposely intending to make the thing look like a movie/tv show bomb, which, I mean, come on, that's what it looks like. If you've watched a TV show or movie in the last 60+ years you've seen some iteration of the case bomb.



I don't think he was expecting it to go as far as it did. I think he was just pulling a dumb kid prank. Or may he just thought it looked cool if it looked like a bomb. I would've thought it looked like a cool bomb if I was 14. I think the authorities could have handled things differently, but we live in a post-Columbine, post-911 world where if you sneeze wrong people jump. Just a few years ago, a school shooting had us seriously talking about tighter national gun control. Teachers are pulling kids out of classes for making guns out of lego blocks and pieces of notebook paper. So, even if I don't agree with how it was handled, I can't say I'm surprised. What I am surprised (or maybe disappointed) about is how opinion seems divided, once again, via political party affiliation. You don't have to be a conservative to think that the thing was intended to look a bit like a clock bomb. You don't have to be a liberal to think that the school and police handling of the issue was over the top.

[Sam]

I haven't gone through the whole thread, and I have mixed thoughts about the subject myself, but has anyone else seen this video that seems to be getting pretty popular?

To summarize, Ahmed Mohammed didn't invent anything as sometimes claimed. He didn't find spare parts laying around and ingeniously MacGyver them together. He literally took the housing off of the clock pictured below and put the bare guts into a case.



If you ask me, having once been a terrible and crazy 14 year old kid (I once burned down a portion of a local park with a molotov cocktail, and threw some smoke bombs into an industrial company's ventilation which received a firefighter response), he was purposely intending to make the thing look like a movie/tv show bomb, which, I mean, come on, that's what it looks like. If you've watched a TV show or movie in the last 60+ years you've seen some iteration of the case bomb.



I don't think he was expecting it to go as far as it did. I think he was just pulling a dumb kid prank. Or may he just thought it looked cool if it looked like a bomb. I would've thought it looked like a cool bomb if I was 14. I think the authorities could have handled things differently, but we live in a post-Columbine, post-911 world where if you sneeze wrong people jump. Just a few years ago, a school shooting had us seriously talking about tighter national gun control. Teachers are pulling kids out of classes for making guns out of lego blocks and pieces of notebook paper. So, even if I don't agree with how it was handled, I can't say I'm surprised. What I am surprised (or maybe disappointed) about is how opinion seems divided, once again, via political party affiliation. You don't have to be a conservative to think that the thing was intended to look a bit like a clock bomb. You don't have to be a liberal to think that the school and police handling of the issue was over the top.

[Cow Poke]

Sam, while I sympathize that you have converted to be a worshiper of The Clock, and this may hurt your feelings, let me ask a question.

When you wake up in the middle of the night, and want to know what time it is, do you open up your clock so you can see the display? I mean, come on --- what PRACTICAL reason would there be for having a clock INSIDE an enclosure, where you have to OPEN the enclosure, subjecting yourself to dangerous voltages inside?

If you're going to be putting those components somewhere, it's going to end up being some kind of enclosure. In this case, it looks like a smaller version of a poker chip case.

Radio Shack has FOR YEARS sold project boxes where the components can be INSIDE - not exposed to the elements, and not subject the user to the dangers of electric shock. Who, in their right mind, would put the display on the INSIDE of the enclosure?

Jumping from that, based on watching TV, to ascribing an intent to make a hoax bomb is inappropriate. Nothing that the kid did or has done since indicate such a motive. If you're setting out to make a fake bomb and prank the school, you put it in the bathroom or something ...

Is that written down somewhere?

... you don't show it off to your teacher and you don't keep it in your backpack during class.

UNLESS!!!!! you want to make a point and get lots of attention. Why didn't he just leave it with the teacher? You're right - it's DUMB to keep it in his backpack during class.

Your dedication to The Clock is admirable, Sam. If only you were an advocate of the Faith to that same extent.

[One Bad Pig]

You don't have to be a conservative to think that the thing was intended to look a bit like a clock bomb. You don't have to be a liberal to think that the school and police handling of the issue was over the top.

As a conservative, I wasn't inclined to think that it was intended to look like a bomb (though your video is making me reconsider), and I thought the school and police handling of the issue was over the top.

[Cow Poke]

As a conservative, I wasn't inclined to think that it was intended to look like a bomb (though your video is making me reconsider), and I thought the school and police handling of the issue was over the top.

As an electronics / computer guy - I wasn't really impressed with the "clock" as a "clock", for reasons which I have already stated. I am, however, completely willing to agree that the handling of this incident was way overblown.

HOWEVER ---- we don't know the content of the discussion the teacher had with Ahmed - even he said she was afraid. WHY was she afraid? What did that teacher know about Ahmed or his family, or the circumstances.

At our meeting this morning, our Police Chief and our Sheriff both alluded to the fact that what happens in cases like this is that ONE SIDE of the story gets out, hits social media, creates apostles and advocates, and the "other side", for a wide range of reasons, doesn't get their side out.

Part of the discussion was that it is becoming necessary, in this age in which we live, for the officials to get their side out as quickly and honestly as they can from the get-go, because they get drowned out by all they hype and socialmediamania, to which so many otherwise reasonable people succumb.

In the past, "the other side" has not gotten their story out because "it's still under investigation" or "we don't want to inflame the situation" or "out of respect to the family"....

There is another side to this story, but it gets totally lost in the hyperventilation of the gullible.

[Sam]

Sam, while I sympathize that you have converted to be a worshiper of The Clock, and this may hurt your feelings, let me ask a question.

When you wake up in the middle of the night, and want to know what time it is, do you open up your clock so you can see the display? I mean, come on --- what PRACTICAL reason would there be for having a clock INSIDE an enclosure, where you have to OPEN the enclosure, subjecting yourself to dangerous voltages inside?

Radio Shack has FOR YEARS sold project boxes where the components can be INSIDE - not exposed to the elements, and not subject the user to the dangers of electric shock. Who, in their right mind, would put the display on the INSIDE of the enclosure?

Why didn't he just CAD up a custom enclosure and 3D print it out? Why not commission a plastic mold? Because it's a basic electronics project and he didn't need to. Sufficient answer.

UNLESS!!!!! you want to make a point and get lots of attention. Why didn't he just leave it with the teacher? You're right - it's DUMB to keep it in his backpack during class.

According to Mountain Man's article, he showed it to the teacher and the teacher told him he shouldn't show it to the other teachers. Keeping it in his backpack was an acceptable option. You're straining to find fault in this kid somehow but you haven't yet acknowledged once that the police response was dramatically (yes, dramatically) disproportionate.

Your dedication to The Clock is admirable, Sam. If only you were an advocate of the Faith to that same extent.

Whenever you try to pull that card, you should take a walk or something, man. It comes across as petty and desperate every single time.

[Cow Poke]

Because the kid obviously wasn't making a polished, finished product.

Yup - fervent follower of The Clock, with an explanation for everything, desperately defending The Clock.

[KingsGambit]

Yup - fervent follower of The Clock, with an explanation for everything, desperately defending The Clock.

CP, I honestly think it's unfair to hold a 14 year old experimenting with electronics to professional type standards.

[Adrift]

Except that it looks pretty similar to a stereotypical movie/tv show briefcase bomb.

Just putting the projecting into an enclosure does not demonstrate intent or even suggest approximation.

Come on Sam, you're smarter than that. You were 14 once. 14 year old you wouldn't have thought this looked like a cool bomb? Seriously? I don't believe that for a second.

If you're going to be putting those components somewhere, it's going to end up being some kind of enclosure. In this case, it looks like a smaller version of a poker chip case. Jumping from that, based on watching TV, to ascribing an intent to make a hoax bomb is inappropriate.

Inappropriate? What are you talking about? It's not inappropriate at all. It's perfectly appropriate in the context of modern society's fears about school violence. To say that it's inappropriate comes off as trying way too hard.

Nothing that the kid did or has done since indicate such a motive.

Except for, you know, he's 14 years old, and 14 year olds do dumb crap like that (exhibit A, me).

If you're setting out to make a fake bomb and prank the school, you put it in the bathroom or something ... you don't show it off to your teacher and you don't keep it in your backpack during class.

Of course you do. You honestly didn't do dumb stuff like this as a kid, and then show it off to everyone? Why would you leave it in a bathroom for someone else to take credit? You're not thinking like a kid Sam, you're thinking like some sort of nefarious terrorist. This kid isn't a terrorist, he's just a teen who thought it would be cool to make a clock look like a bomb. If I had thought of it, I'd probably would've done the same thing at that age.

Honestly Sam, I know you're a lot more rational than this. I don't understand why even the idea that he intended to make it look like a bomb (which it very coincidentally does) is freaking you out. It doesn't make sense to me unless there's a political spin that you're desperately holding onto. Let's be real man. Get all of the political silliness out of your head, and look at it for what it is.

[Sea of red]

I haven't gone through the whole thread, and I have mixed thoughts about the subject myself, but has anyone else seen this video that seems to be getting pretty popular?

To summarize, Ahmed Mohammed didn't invent anything as sometimes claimed. He didn't find spare parts laying around and ingeniously MacGyver them together. He literally took the housing off of the clock pictured below and put the bare guts into a case.



If you ask me, having once been a terrible and crazy 14 year old kid (I once burned down a portion of a local park with a molotov cocktail, and threw some smoke bombs into an industrial company's ventilation which received a firefighter response), he was purposely intending to make the thing look like a movie/tv show bomb, which, I mean, come on, that's what it looks like. If you've watched a TV show or movie in the last 60+ years you've seen some iteration of the case bomb.



I don't think he was expecting it to go as far as it did. I think he was just pulling a dumb kid prank. Or may he just thought it looked cool if it looked like a bomb. I would've thought it looked like a cool bomb if I was 14. I think the authorities could have handled things differently, but we live in a post-Columbine, post-911 world where if you sneeze wrong people jump. Just a few years ago, a school shooting had us seriously talking about tighter national gun control. Teachers are pulling kids out of classes for making guns out of lego blocks and pieces of notebook paper. So, even if I don't agree with how it was handled, I can't say I'm surprised. What I am surprised (or maybe disappointed) about is how opinion seems divided, once again, via political party affiliation. You don't have to be a conservative to think that the thing was intended to look a bit like a clock bomb. You don't have to be a liberal to think that the school and police handling of the issue was over the top.

Where's your evidence for any of these assertions? Movies and television are not real life. Most of the bombs that terrorists construct look more like a birds nest of wires, than anything out of some action movie. Like I said, I've brought rocket motors to brothers school inside of a protective case much more intimidating than that. Just because you did some really foolish and criminal things as a kid, does not mean he was guilty of the same kind of thinking - most kids don't go around doing that I'm afraid.

If he wanted to freak people out he wouldn't have used some kit-bashed kids electronic learning set to do it.

[Cow Poke]

If he wanted to freak people out he wouldn't have used some kit-bashed kids electronic learning set to do it.

I don't think he wanted to "freak anybody out". I think he wanted attention. He got it, and he gets to go hobnob with the rich and liberal!

[Sam]

Except that it looks pretty similar to a stereotypical movie/tv show briefcase bomb.



Come on Sam, you're smarter than that. You were 14 once. 14 year old you wouldn't have thought this looked like a cool bomb? Seriously? I don't believe that for a second.



Inappropriate? What are you talking about? It's not inappropriate at all. It's perfectly appropriate in the context of modern society's fears about school violence. To say that it's inappropriate comes off as trying way too hard.



Except for, you know, he's 14 years old, and 14 year olds do dumb crap like that (exhibit A, me).



Of course you do. You honestly didn't do dumb stuff like this as a kid, and then show it off to everyone? Why would you leave it in a bathroom for someone else to take credit? You're not thinking like a kid Sam, you're thinking like some sort of nefarious terrorist. This kid isn't a terrorist, he's just a teen who thought it would be cool to make a clock look like a bomb. If I had thought of it, I'd probably would've done the same thing at that age.

Honestly Sam, I know you're a lot more rational than this. I don't understand why even the idea that he intended to make it look like a bomb (which it very coincidentally does) is freaking you out. It doesn't make sense to me unless there's a political spin that you're desperately holding onto. Let's be real man. Get all of the political silliness out of your head, and look at it for what it is.

No, Adrift, you're projecting your 14 year-old experience onto others. It's not appropriate to say that 14 year-olds do dumb things like build prank bombs so it's OK to say that this kid probably intended to build a prank bomb. You just can't assume that's normative and then pin it on the kid when his testimony and the evidence suggests that he was building a clock and that's it.

I'd be ticked off something royal if I were 14 and someone accused me of intending to make a fake bomb when I was just showing off a basic clock project. It's like showing off a BASIC coding project only to get accused of writing a virus because both things happened to include computer code.

You can't attribute malicious motives to a person without evidence based on "14 year olds do dumb crap like that" and say that's looking at it for what it is. It's not. It's projection and it's not appropriate.

[Cow Poke]

CP, I honestly think it's unfair to hold a 14 year old experimenting with electronics to professional type standards.

"Professional type standards"? I was 14 too, once. I created a "digital clock"* out of an erector set and parts I scrounged up from the local TV repair shop. Even I, as a dumb kid, was smart enough to know if you're building a clock, you don't put the display -- the main OBJECT of having a clock -- on the INSIDE where you have to open the case to see it, exposing yourself and others to the power.

On the OTHER hand, when they're doing one of these "bomb dramas" on TV - that's EXACTLY what you do... you have to OPEN the suitcase or container to see the clock.



*the "digits" were cardboard cutouts that flipped like the old mechanical "digital" clocks