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

[KingsGambit]

Well, a circuit board, a bunch of wires, and other unidentifiable parts inside a briefcase could certainly make me nervous in the right (or wrong) setting. Imagine someone trying to sneak that past airport security.

If airport security is now the threshold for what's acceptable, I can't wait until we see kids getting expelled for bringing toothpaste to school.

[Cerebrum123]

If airport security is now the threshold for what's acceptable, I can't wait until we see kids getting expelled for bringing toothpaste to school.

Or seeing them frisk people who are in wheelchairs.

[Mountain Man]

If airport security is now the threshold for what's acceptable, I can't wait until we see kids getting expelled for bringing toothpaste to school.

Fair point.

[Mountain Man]

The student repeatedly told officials that it was a clock, so I don't see where he's at fault.

I never said he was at fault. My point is only that the teachers did not necessarily act inappropriately.

[Mountain Man]

...and there's obviously no explosive component to it.

Is it obvious? For someone who really doesn't know anything about bombs, it's not obvious to me. From what I know of plastic explosives, you don't need a huge amount to cause considerable damage, and a sufficient amout could be easily concealed inside, say, a homemade clock.

All I'm saying is that the teachers weren't wrong to respond how they did, especially in today's environment.

[Teallaura]

This type of reasoning is what lead to the creation of the Patriot act.... Just because something can be used for bad thing does not mean we overreact to situations. The student repeatedly told officials that it was a clock, so I don't see where he's at fault.

Without using Google, tell me the visual difference between a syphilitic palmer-plantar rash and a non-syphilitic rash. Can't? Why it's obvious - there isn't one on visual inspection.

Not everyone is an expert in everything - and it's grossly unfair to expect them to be. Not knowing what the innards of your computer look like doesn't make you stupid - it just makes you disinterested in electronics. Telling teachers they have to correctly identify every device that they don't recognize is foolish. The teacher was correct to question it. The problem occurs when no one seems to have enough sense to get the one teacher that should have been called to see what the thing was.

That there wasn't any dynamite strapped to it really doesn't eliminate the possibility of plastic explosives. That the teacher didn't know it wasn't dangerous doesn't make them reactionary - that it escalated to calling the cops when more rational means were available does.

The student was at fault only in bringing the thing, which is a minor fault (lack of foresight) and hauling it around after being told it wasn't a good idea to have it at school. Neither is malicious nor particularly stupid and neither deserved punishment of any sort.

The engineering teacher probably could have done a better job by offering to keep it for the student until time to leave or telling him to put it in his locker (eh, I like the first better) but hindsight is twenty-twenty.

[Teallaura]

He wasn't trying to sneak it anywhere, let alone past airport security - and there's obviously no explosive component to it. Further, people do not nonchalantly carry around bombs in their backpacks - people who are sent on suicide bombing missions are typically hopped up on drugs and/or nervous as all getout.

Do you bet 900 kids lives on your ability to spot a suicide bomber's behavior or whether or not a kid might somehow get access to a plastic explosive in the age of the Internet, or do you question the device?

The over reaction occurs not when they question the device but when they refuse to use any sense applying the resources they have available and fail to address the kid's answers.

[KingsGambit]

Or seeing them frisk people who are in wheelchairs.

Why should people who are in wheelchairs be exempt from security? Or old ladies, for that matter? Terrorist groups are known for using people (even unknowing children) who they know nobody would suspect.

[Jaecp]

Let's just be afraid of everything all the time!

[KingsGambit]

Let's just be afraid of everything all the time!

Taking reasonable precautions doesn't equate to fearing everything.

[Jaecp]

You really believe that the bulk of our countries post 9/11 reaction counts as that?

[KingsGambit]

You really believe that the bulk of our countries post 9/11 reaction counts as that?

No, I never said anything about the bulk of the reaction. I do think airport security should exist though.

[Littlejoe]

Then never use a computer or especially a Rasberry Pi circuit board, after all it has wires that connect to each other, right?

Seriously, this level scorn is just misplaced...just because you and I with electronics training and experience can spot something quickly doesn't mean a teacher who teaches say...English...can. This is a SCHOOL! Appropriate precautions need to be taken until it can be determined with certainty that there's no danger. The problem came later with the police and school Admin continuing to overreact when it should have been clear after an expert examination it was what it was claimed to be.

[Teallaura]

Why should people who are in wheelchairs be exempt from security? Or old ladies, for that matter? Terrorist groups are known for using people (even unknowing children) who they know nobody would suspect.

They shouldn't, but neither do you frisk everyone. He is referring to an egregious case.

There is a balance between due caution and paranoia.

[Cerebrum123]

Why should people who are in wheelchairs be exempt from security? Or old ladies, for that matter? Terrorist groups are known for using people (even unknowing children) who they know nobody would suspect.

Never said anything about being exempt from security. However, with a disabled person frisking can them cause a lot of harm. It took me days to recover from that. We had a doctors note and everything explicitly telling them not to touch me. There are other options. They have all kinds of devices for scanning, they don't need to pat someone down when it's going to likely injure them.