[ahmad19526]

Go into any Electrical Engineering department at any university and you'll find plenty of students with boxes filled with circuit boards and electronics.

Everybody who's played with electronics knows that stuff is brittle and needs to be protected carefully. One wire coming loose renders your entire work obsolete and unlike software, there's no debugger to tell you where you potentially screwed up...

Racial profiling and ignorance at it's finest.

[x5n1]

That's not even the issue to me. It's like fine you "suspected" it. How difficult was it to not suspect it anymore? Like did the arrest and the accusations need to happen. It's almost like attempting to traumatize the kid and his peers for no good reason and for what? Security theater? Because he was brown or a Muslim and did not know that brown or Muslim people should not bring electronics that might be suspected with them to school because they should fear being suspected? Perhaps we can excuse his ignorance for not being old enough.

[t2015_08_25]

> How difficult was it to not suspect it anymore?

Excellent observation. It's really about people conditioned to follow scripts.

These people were missing the "de-escalation script" in which a teacher laughs, puts their hand on their forehead and says,

    "Wow, That scared the shit out of me for a minute there.  Now let's show you how to make a tidy wooden box for your amazing clock project."

[x5n1]

Well I guess they could logically suspect that he might be doing something more sinister than just bringing around a clock project. So fine get a court order to search his house while keeping him detained at school. Find nothing. Apologize and let him go.

[ashark]

I have a feeling a lot of this behavior from teachers and school middle management is driven by fear of having exactly the same sort of irrational punishment come down on them.

Didn't treat the clock like a bomb? Might get fired. Did treat it like a bomb, turned out to be wrong, apologized? Might get fired. Did treat it like a bomb, turned out to be wrong, uhhh... maybe if I get the police involved I can make this not my fault?

Reasonable errors on all levels are often greeted with harsh punishment and sometimes demonization by news media. It's not just kids who are subject to it. People are rightly terrified of being blamed for errors that anyone could make, and their behavior makes a lot of sense in that context.

[goldenkey]

It all stems from not having a backbone. Less weasels, more passionate people with some step in their walk. But all the political bullshit that educators have to waft through kills most passion and flare to go against the grain, to do what they feel is right. Unfortunately the nazi-effect is in full swing for most salaried office workers. No one wants to get fired, so everyone just obeys arcane rules and doesn't do anything the least bit outside the box. It's basically raining with grey skies every day.

[ashark]

It doesn't help that the consequences of losing a job are substantially higher in the US than in most other advanced economies. And we're easier to fire, on top of it[0]. It's harder to take a stand over small(ish) things when it can bring financial ruin for one's family.

[0] yes, even many teachers. The power of unions in preserving teachers' jobs is highly regional, and often exaggerated.

[WiseWeasel]

When did DIY electronics become actionable evidence of terrorism?

[tomswartz07]

"..AAANND HOOOOMME OF THE BRAVVVEEEE!"

[peejaybee]

It's almost like attempting to traumatize the kid and his peers for no good reason and for what?

That's pretty simple -- their "authority" depends on never, ever, admitting that they were wrong.

[dllthomas]

The response is pretty simple. If they can never, ever admit they were wrong, we need to deprive them of their "authority".

[goldenkey]

Who's the we? These administrators are put their by their buddies in city and state positions. They almost never are educators themselves. In order to get competent caring administrators, who know what education is about, we need reform that actually puts educators in the hotseats.

[dllthomas]

Right thinking people? Of course it only works to the degree we have critical mass. But it seems worth encouraging, that we might more quickly get there in more cases.

[hencq]

Exactly! Apparently it's really difficult for some people to admit they were wrong. How difficult would it be to just say: "I'm sorry, we screwed up."? Instead they still insist on calling his clock a "hoax bomb".

[andrewstuart2]

As well as a diversified student body, in my experience. And yet, no bombs.

[pcote]

There were debuggers in the electronics shops that I remember. They were called multimeters. You debugged by deducing where voltage, current, and resistance levels were in your circuit.

I've also made my share of brittle programming projects where one errant line could act like a "loose wire" and take down everything.

[austenallred]

To be fair it's a middle school, and most people don't really know what a circuit board is for. I don't think it's outrageous that they asked.

It should have never, however, escalated as far as it did. You're going to handcuff a kid who is cooperating and trying to explain what this thing he built is? Give me a break.

But worse still they're still not backing down. It's suspension of all logic and reasoning. They should have shown the clock to his engineering teacher and resolved the issue in minutes.

[marcinx27]

Nah, it's a high school. And the reaction really wasn't warranted. He did show it to his engineering teacher before he got nabbed, too. According to the Times,

"When Ahmed Mohamed, 14, brought the clock to MacArthur High School in Irving, Tex., on Monday, an engineering teacher suggested that he not show the invention to other teachers. But it beeped during an English class, prompting Ahmed to show his English teacher what it was, according to an account in The Dallas Morning News."

[austenallred]

I mean the initial concern as in "What is that circuit board?"

Then it should go, "Oh it's a clock." "Is that true, engineering teacher?" "Yes." "OK cool."

[knowaveragejoe]

That's how it should go, in an ideal world. I think the engineering teacher did the right thing in suggesting he not show it off, given society today. He's aware of racial profiling in a post 9/11 world and how stupid some people are.

[davidw]

> an engineering teacher suggested that he not show the invention to other teachers. But it beeped during an English class, prompting Ahmed to show his English teacher what it was

Ok, I can't help but be reminded of my recent comments about English classes in high school.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10205670

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10204756

[jkestner]

I wonder, did any of the staff actually know the kid? They're acting like he wandered in, and not like any of them could attest to his character.

[yellowapple]

It's pretty early in the school year, and judging by his stated age he's likely a freshman. Not much of a chance for a teacher to ascertain things like "character".

[schreiaj]

Man, I must have interacted with weird middle schoolers at my local hackerspace... Seemed like every last one of them had either some simple arduino project or something with a RasPi they were working on. I'd hate to live in a place where most people have no idea what a circuit board looks like.

Also, asking doesn't need to get the police involved: "Hey, what is this?" "Oh it's a clock I built" 'Why'd you bring it to school?" "Cuz I'm proud of it and wanted to show you"

If there was still doubt, ok, find someone who knows something about it (there's gotta be a tinkerer SOMEWHERE in the school district) and ask them to take a look. Maybe couch it as "Why don't we show it to X, I think they'd get a kick out of it?"

But arresting a 14 yr old tinkerer for a clock? Whatever happened to having sane reasonable conversations?

[smileysteve]

We're trying to promote stem in the U.S., not say, "middle school is too early"

Anecdotally; I was wiring together simple switches, electric motors, and solar panels in and out of the classroom in elementary school in the mid 90s. I was programming timers and games in middle school by the late 90s.