Blame Zero Tolerance Insanity – Not “Islamophobia” – for TX schoolchild clock incident
From Pop-Tart guns to key chain charms, we’ve seen this story with all types of children.
Yesterday a Texas teenager, who happens to be a Muslim, brought a homemade clock to school and was arrested because the clock was mistaken for a bomb. Some people are blaming racism but zero tolerance policies are the real problem.
NBC News reports that he won’t be charged:
No Charges For Ahmed Mohamed, Teen Arrested After Bringing Homemade Clock to School
Police in Texas said Wednesday that charges will not be filed against a 14-year-old Muslim high school student who was arrested after he brought in a homemade clock that a teacher said looked like a bomb.
The arrest drew an outcry on social media. Hundreds of thousands of people used the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed — and President Barack Obama invited the teen to the White House.
Ahmed Mohamed, who is Sudanese-American, was arrested on Monday in the Dallas suburb of Irving after he took the clock to his high school.
He told The Dallas Morning News that he had been in robotics club in middle school, and he wanted to show his new teacher what he could do.
This Associated Press video report provides more background:
Because the teenager in the story is a Muslim, the left has rushed to blame the story on racism, rather than the zero tolerance policies rampant in America’s public schools.
Robby Soave of Reason makes that point very well:
Hey Liberals, #IStandwithAhmed Isn’t Only About Racism. It’s About School Zero Tolerance Insanity.
As evidenced by Twitter—#IStandWithAhmed—everybody is on Ahmed’s side (with the possible exception of his school’s officials, who sent a letter home to parents alerting them to the non-incident). Even President Obama tweeted, “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.” His message was retweeted 200,000 times in the past three hours.
I stand with Ahmed, too. But I also stand with Alex Stone.
Who is Alex Stone? He’s the South Carolina 16-year-old who was arrested and suspended last year for writing a purely fictional story about a dinosaur in which he killed the prehistoric beast with a gun. Stone was a white kid.
Legal Insurrection has covered zero tolerance insanity many times:
- The zero-tolerance war on kindergarteners
- Forecast: Cloudy, with a certainty of Zero Tolerance Insanity
- Oklahoma teachers union seeks to keep zero tolerance rules banning imaginary guns
- 12-year old RI student suspended for small keychain “gun”
- All your front yards are belong to school zero-tolerance policies
- “Zero Tolerance For Drones”
- Not a Pop Tart: 13-year old with “toy” AK-47 shot and killed by police
- Here we go again: 10-year-old boy suspended for pointing finger like a gun
Enough said?
UPDATE: Thanks to Rush Limbaugh for the nice shout out:
Pop Tart guns. Key chain charms. We have seen this story. No charges for this kid. The kid’s name is Ahmed Mohamed, by the way. Charges will not be filed against him. He’s a 14-year-old Muslim high school student arrested after he brought in a homemade clock that a teacher said looked like a bomb. Legal Insurrection — which is a very, very great and eminently qualified legal website. Legal Insurrection has spent countless posts covering zero-tolerance insanity on school campuses all over the country.
Kindergarteners have been sent home for using their hands to pretend to be firing a gun. A 13-year-old with a toy AK-47 has been shot and killed by the cops, and a 10-year-old boy was suspended for pointing a finger like a gun. A 12-year-old Rhode Island student was suspended for small key chain gun. “Oklahoma teachers union seeks to keep zero tolerance rules banning imaginary guns.” Everybody has become so sensitized to this because of the actual shootings at schools that there has become a “zero tolerance.”
So the point here is that the effort is being made to blame school officials and the cops for Islamophobia here, and that is not what is going on. Zero-tolerance policies at schools, which are the direct result of previous incidents — the zero tolerance is out of control, such as pretending to shoot a gun with your finger (that gets you sent home) — is what’s responsible here. It’s just the latest example, and it’s made to order for Obama, because here we have once again backlash against Muslims, you see?
That’s what this really is. So Obama will be able to make a speech about how dangerous this is, how unfortunate it is, how sorry it is. Innocent little 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed has a brilliant science project, a brilliant clock, a new way of doing a clock. (Yeah, one looks just like a bomb in a briefcase.) Obama gets to bring him to the White House, make a star out of him, make Obama’s star shine even brighter. And once again, the bottom line: Characterize the United States as a racist and bigoted country.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
Zero tolerance = suspending intelligence (of any caliber)
Agreed – and I, too, supposed this instance fit into the category. But seeing a picture of the components, is that something we expect classroom teachers to just “handle”?
Try getting on an airplane or into a federal courthouse with that suitcase, and get back to me with your experience.
Yes, we should expect them to handle it. And we should expect the security guards at a courthouse, and the TSA, to handle it too. That they don’t is no excuse for the teachers.
So the teacher should do WHAT, exactly? Confiscate a device with electronics she doesn’t recognize? Let him keep it? Give it back at the end of class?
When one blows up, and might not have, you will feel foolish.
A teacher should not jump to the conclusion that everything a student has is some sort of weapon or bomb or other dangerous object. A teacher should understand that his or her classroom is more likely to be struck by lightning than to be bombed or shot up by one of the students, and that whatever a student brings is almost certainly not anything to be concerned about. If it looks like an electronics project, that’s what it almost certainly is. A tubular object is probably a poster or a telescope or something like that. A bulge in a pocket is almost certainly not a gun. And for that matter a gun-shaped object is almost certainly a toy. School shootings and bombings just don’t happen often enough to be the first thing one thinks of. Has it ever happened that a student bombed his own classroom?
I agree with you. Just wonder why the parents would let their son bring something to school like this. I certainly wouldn’t let my son do this.
I was disappointed that Obama didn’t offer a trip to the White House to the kid who was suspended for chewing his Pop Tart into the shape of a gun.
#BreakfastPastryMatters
And there is a vast chasm of difference between a partially consumed Pop Tart and and a jumble of wires and circuit boards in a briefcase that looks nothing like a clock. One obviously poses no threat at all to anyone.
For sure… the partially hydrogenated oils and corn syrup in the pop tart are real killers! Just ask the FDA and the E-I-E-I-O. They’ll tell ya’ what’s best for you and your kids.
Wrong color, wrong religion.
There is much more to this story than the media is sharing. For example, the school claims Mohamed was uncooperative when they were asking him about the “clock.” He could not (or would not) explain why he brought to to school, why he made it in the first place, or even *how* he made it. Everything the media is reporting are claims made up after the fact.
I think the parents are more involved than they say. They are involved with CAIR, so the whole thing could be a publicity stunt. Look how fast the story hit the news and Obama’s attention. There is something very suspicious about the timing of it all.
After having seen a picture of the “clock,” and even being absolutely against these crazy “zero tolerance” policies, I have to agree with Ed Driscoll:
But once they ascertained it wasn’t a bomb, it should have ended there. Just as, after they ascertained that no-one has ever been shot by a breakfast pastry, that one should have ended there.
You are correct. But once again the hypocrisy of the collective borg mind is on full display. The rational for suspending the pop-tart artist is that his piece might scare someone or make them uncomfortable. And a device that looks like a bomb smuggled into the school does what, exactly?
“rationale” is being generous – it’s an inevitable result of “ZERO TOLERANCE” policies that also penalize fingers held like a pistol and plastic picnic “knives” used to spread cheese on crackers.
Children should not bring guns to school, and a strict prohibition on toy guns makes sense, too. But drawings and Pop Tarts really don’t shoot, ya know? And if teachers and administrators can’t figure that out on their own, if they are really that stupid, should they be in charge of kids?
You’re suspicious of the “timing.” Very funny.
If you see something, say something. Despite having watched two news stories on this incident, I still don’t see a clock anywhere. School authorities were right to be concerned.
Whose bright idea was it to import this family of Sudanese Islamists?
I should hope that somebody, somewhere along the line had the sense to sit the boy down and explain to him WHY his clock project created such a stir. Explained why adults overreacted with fear to an object they so obviously didn’t understand. Explained why a slightly better presentation of his device probably would have met with a much better reaction. If he’s bright enough to build the device, he’s bright enough to absorb a quick lesson or two in product development and presentation. The lad can still win here if any of the adults around him care to impart a bit of perspective to a young but promising mind.
The kid’s engineering teacher did tell him the thing resembled a bomb and advised him not to show it to anyone else for fear that it would cause alarm. But, the kid did not heed his teacher’s advice; instead, he took his contraption to another class, plugged it in, and it drew the attention of another teacher when the device alarmed.
This case was appropriately handled by the school and the police; it has nothing to do with Zero Tolerance. I can buy the idea that the kid was naïve when he showed his device to his engineering teacher, but once that teacher expressed concern and offered advice and the kid chose to ignore that advice he was in clear violation of the law in that he obviously disturbed the peace at a minimum.
If the Pop Tart pistol kid had been offered a similar warning and advice, eg — “Johnny, quit waving your pistol-shaped Pop Tart around and threatening your classmates with it; either eat it or throw it away” — that case would be far less notorious. However, Johnny wasn’t given any warning or advice; rather, he was instantly suspended for being in possession of a half-eaten breakfast pastry. What we are seeing in this case is Muslim privilege.
The “device” was a naked circuit board, a battery, and a display. How can something that obviously has no explosives be mistaken for a bomb? Nothing but zero-tolerance lunacy. If his engineering teacher asked him to show it to nobody else, it was because he was aware of the lunacy, not because he thought it might be mistaken for a bomb by anyone with a lick of common sense.
This reminds me of the kerfuffle over the punk rocker (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/14/charges-dropped-against-punk-rocker-who-wore-fake-/) who got on board a bus in Boston with what looked like a belt made of ammunition. Even if it was real, it was ammo for a very large weapon that he very obviously didn’t have with him. Yet panicked ensued as if the bullets themselves presented a threat.
This child’s father is the Lyndon LaRouche of Sudanese politics.
The father is famous for concocting publicity stunts to get press time, and then temporarily moving to Sudan to lose Presidential Elections.
Remember the time that the Koran burning Gainsville pastor debated a Muslim cleric? That’s this kid’s father.
The chance that this this kid is not a pulling a publicity gotcha stunt are zero. Shame on the media for falling for it. And if the teachers did not talk to the kid about wanting to see the clock beforehand, and there is no indication in the story that they did, then they didn’t do the wrong thing either.
Figures! This stuff does seem to become a family business for many people.
Hey – got links to where you found that out? I haven’t seen or read that anywhere.
Again, all you get is the MSM agitprop.
I’ve been saying since I heard about it that this whole thing was manufactured. I’d love to read the info. you have on this kid’s father…….
“Shame on the media for falling for it?”
Most of “the media” will fall all over themselves to prostrate themselves before their god of progressivism and it’s agenda of insanity and unilaterally assured self-destruction.
This has all the msm makings of the Michael Brown mess without the killing. They hyped that story until it was labeled “Fiction” by every library in the world. This story too is a product of the msm and their agenda to make all minorities victims no matter the truth.
He really needs to bring the clock with him when he visits D.C. If they really trust him, there is no need to check it before he sees Obama.
Just think, only a few days ago the White House was on lockdown due to an unattended coffee cup left in the park across the street.
@Skookum – The photos show the electronic innards of the clock, including the back side of the digital display. From the front, from the outside of the box, all one would see would be the numerical digital display which would look very like a clock.
Also, did the teacher to whom Ahmed showed his work really tell Ahmed his clock looked like a bomb? Or is somebody putting words in the teacher’s mouth? Early reportage did’t say this.
For any doubters, take a household alarm clock and disassemble it to reveal the electronics on the insides. Note the similarities between that commercial product and what Ahmed put together.
A relevant story. I was working to put a telecom product into manufacturing. The design engineers were in California, manufacturing was taking place in Texas. While visiting California for meeting with the engineers I was asked by an engineer to bring a backup power unit to Texas. The unit consisted of a large cylinder, a capacitor, maybe 3/4 the size of an oil can, with a small circuit board on top of it, and several dangling wires ending in a connector. Yes, it resembled certain Hollywood bombs. I didn’t want to have to explain this innocuous electronic device to any authorities, so I asked my colleague to ship it to me. All ended safely and satisfactorily with no fuss and bother.
Is there a liberal media conspiracy to avoid showing the clock’s digital display? From what you are saying I assume the reddish panel on the lid is the back of the display, and that the display is visible on the reverse side of the lid.
I’ll admit that I see nothing inside the case that looks like an explosive (a subject I know nothing about), but that does little to take away from the kid not heeding his engineering teacher’s warning. As to most outlets not reporting on his teacher’s warning and advice, including this fact doesn’t fit the progressive narrative. Are you surprised to learn the media spins stories to suit their ideology?
the only thing separating this “clock” from an explosive device was the lack of an explosive payload and a detonator.
the electrical impulse that made it beep would also have triggered an explosion, had the additional components been present.
the school was totally justified in its response.
What you say is true, but it is true about just about any electronic clock. If you know what you’re doing, you can more easily turn an analog clock (one with moving hands) into a timer for a bomb. So what the kid had was the timer for a bomb, as is any clock, but not a real bomb because it lacked explosives (as do most clocks). This means the kid had a clock, not a bomb.
Was it a stunt meant to gain media attention? Very likely. But if it was, it was calculated with reliance upon zero-tolerance nonsense, knowing that it could be made into a story about “Islamophobia.”
That’s the only thing separating any clock from an explosive device. But a clock is a normal thing to have, and no sane person panics over it.
unless, because of a zero-tolerance program, they must. which is the point of this post.
Hey, I actually teach a middle school robotics class. (great after school program, we build and compete with 3 pound combat robots). In my instructions to the kids I cover this very point. I tell them that if they are bringing anything from home that looks questionable that they do so in a sealed box and bring it straight to the program office. No waving things around. No blabbing about it. I did not say no beeping but it follows. It is a question of perspective really, I have had kids in my advanced program tote large, dangerous looking metal objects around. No issues. But if anybody in the cafeteria makes a menacing move with a plastic fork, look out. I would not, without more evidence, ascribe this to anything other than 9th grade immaturity plus the stupid reflexive reaction of a group of public employees who know that they can’t be fired. Naturally any judgement that relies on partial facts is premature and could be wrong, but the two things I mention…9th graders and public servants who can’t be held accountable, are constants. Tacitus
the Jawa’s know about this family…http://minx.cc:1081/?post=219957
they have ties to CAIR. chances of this being an innocent mistake by the kid are right up there with me being Miss America this year.
Twitchy has more info on the family and it’s sketchy history…
http://twitchy.com/2015/09/17/no-stranger-to-media-attention-meet-istandwithahmeds-father-an-activist-who-twice-ran-for-president-of-sudan/
(waiting for the leftard downcheck that uncomfortable facts get)
To the extent that the “Death to Americans!” Iranians and Muslim terror groups in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Australia and the U.S. have terrorized the people around them with all manner of violence, subjugation, propaganda, etc. including the use of children as shields and as suicide bombers, I would suggest that Islamophobia just may be a rational fear of anyone who is considered to be Muslim. The terrorists have proudly profiled Muslims into this corner.
Depending on the juvenile court system in TX, this boy’s picture, his finger prints and perhaps his DNA are now in a guarded file.
You can bet he’s now in the database. And it’s damage that will not be easy for him to reverse, until he turns 21.
I’m sure the kid didn’t mean any harm. It’s the adults around him who are pulling their hairs and screaming bloody murder. But they don’t think for a minute that, perhaps, some common sense should have been used before going for the handcuffs. Perhaps call Mom and Dad, allow him to have someone there to guide him, like his science teacher, a counselor, or an attorney, perhaps? Nope, they went bat$#!% crazy, and the Muslim community in North TX went with it. Judging too quickly gets you there.
Not every Ahmed Mohammed is going to bomb your school while chanting a religious chant, just as not every Edward Snowden is going to be a good IT worker and keeps National Security secrets to himself instead of spreading them to the world.
There is no need to defend the boy. I have three sons and a daughter. I empathize with the boy whole heartedly…and only in part with the school.
The whole matter should have been handled by a mature adult who knows science projects. The boy should not have been arrested. He should have been questioned about his device, but not arrested.
If the school thought the clock might be a bomb was the bomb squad called?
If the bomb squad had been there then the bomb squad would have known that it wasn’t a bomb and no arrest would have been made. End of story.
I don’t know the whole back story or if there is a back story. Most people don’t know much more right now. The boy, of course, should never be used by anyone for sinister ends.
My point was that the school’s immediate reaction could be understood in a context of well publicized omnipresent Muslim terror threats.
I would like to see the boy, of his own accord, tell Obama what time it is.
As a matter of semantics, “Islamophobia” is a misnomer, because a “phobia” is an unreasoning fear. As you say, we’ve been conditioned by actual acts of terroristic violence to associate this violence with Islam and Muslims. This is a learned response, developed by the observation that nearly every act of terror in the last 30 years (or more) has been conducted by Muslims (for a list since 9/11, see here: http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/TheList.htm); it is not an unreasonable fear. So some other term must be devised to describe the rational fear of Islam and Muslims.
How about “Islamoangst”?
Correction – direct link to terror attack list:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks
I looked at the contents of the box. I’d have called the cops. I’d have called the cops if the owner had been a 90 lb blond blue eyed girl. Its not my responsibility to determine if a mass of electronics is a trigger device or not. The explanation that it is a clock is not going to cut it, clocks are a triggering device.
I do have a problem with the president inviting him to the WH. Where was the invitation to the 1st grader expelled for biting his poptart into the shape of a pistol?
Where was his representation at the funerals of the two reporters killed.
He has an agenda which right now is pro-Islamic and splitting the country racially. Maybe its not, but sure looks that way.
Seems to me that any other kid who brought the same device to school and behaved the same way would have been treated exactly the same by the school.
The difference is that most other kids would not have gotten the White House invitation afterward; au contraire, this administration would have applauded the school’s vigilant concern for the other children’s safety.
All clocks, or any other “mass of electronics,” are potentially “trigger devices” for a bomb. But without explosives, they’re just clocks. Only zero tolerance lunacy is responsible for the reaction to the boy’s “device.” Even if someone there (his engineering teacher, for instance) argued “It’s a clock,” and other teachers and administrators said, “It’s a trigger for a bomb,” both would be right. But anyone calling a device without explosives a “bomb” is flat-out wrong.
Why was the boy genius even making a clock? I thought they were all making apps to save energy, or save lives, or save the environment, or to revolutionize the business world. A clock? What is this, 1977?
Congratulations on the RushALanch!
I agree that the cries of “islamophobia” are unwarranted, just as they usually are. The crazies on the left who insist it wouldn’t have happened to a white kid are just not paying attention. As Soave says, this happens all the time to white kids, and to every other kind of kid.
But those crazies are matched by a horde of crazies on the right — including many commenters on this very blog — with the exact opposite obsession. Every time something like this happens to a non-Moslem they wail that it would never happen to a Moslem. The left crazies are convinced that there is a serious systemic bias against Moslems in America, and the right crazies are convinced that there is a serious systemic bias for Moslems in America. Both are wrong. The people who arrest Xian and Jewish and atheist kids for throwing imaginary hand grenades arrest Moslem kids for the same thing. The people who don’t allow Xian students to pray on school property do the same to Moslem or Jewish students; and the people who do allow Moslem or Jewish students to pray allow Xians to do so as well. There is no serious problem with bias in either direction.
I also think it’s perfectly fair to regard a Moslem student with a little bit more suspicion than another student would be regarded, when and if he does something that seems like it might be jihad-related.
In this case the school had no reasonable grounds for suspecting anything. Electronics are electronics and there’s no reason to suppose they might be a bomb. A normal person does not jump to that conclusion immediately, just as a normal person does not look at a pop tart shaped like a mountain and see a gun. But if there had been reason to think “bomb”, then it would make sense for the boy’s Islam to add to that concern. That’s just common sense. If that’s what you call “islamophobia” then there’s nothing wrong with “islamophobia”.
I would have freaked out too. Did anyone see the suitcase he had? It was a little scary looking.
@Skookum – Allegedly it was the English teacher who said the clock electronics looks like a bomb. Was the teacher trained in electronics or explosives? So far, nobody’s saying, I’ll infer gross overreaction by the least capable of amateurs.
@redc1c4 – If you want to experience heart palpitations, take a long look inside a car’s electronics behind the dashboard. You’ll have to crawl into the footwell by the pedals and have a flashlight to see well. There are any number of circuits buried within capable of energizing a detonator.
@heyjoojoo – Do you normally freak out when visiting a well stocked luggage store? And don’t visit the back shelves of your local electronics supply store. That area could be life threatening to you.
Those of you you who find the “clock” scary, I recommend you never, never, ever, ever, ever, under no circumstance AT ALL, ever, open the case of your computer.
You’ll have a heart attack.
Heh!
BTW, I like your icon.
Andy Lopez deserved what happened to him if Tamir Rice deserved what,happened to him.
Those other zero tolerance incidents involved white kids that weren’t arrested. Only the non white kid gets arrested for a zero tolerance action.
Nonsense.
“The police arrested Stone and charged him with disorderly conduct. He was also suspended from school for a week.”
“A Cobb County high school senior was charged with the felony of bringing weapons into a school zone after police found fishing knives in a tackle box in his car.”
That’s two, and there are plenty more out there.
Not everything is about racism. This, for instance.
Stone I will give you. The kid with the fishing knives, should’ve been arrested. Fishing knives are weapons and can kill.
Now, while I am sure that the kid’s Muslim name was likely a factor, if Goldilocks had brought the same device she would have probably received the same treatment.
This is not islamophobia. This is about our public schools being run by an army of ignorant morons.
The teachers, principals etc, should be fired, but then they’ll probably have to fire 90% of people working in education.
The arresting officers should be fired too.
The thing was not a bomb.
It did not look like a bomb.
It was never intended to look like a bomb.
The kid did nothing wrong.
Hey, just because some Muslim kid brought a MacGyver-ish device into a school why worry? He should have finished the project by putting it into a pressure-cooker case, then no one would ever think it was a bomb, right? I’m sure that then no one would have jumped to such a ridiculous idea.
Besides, teachers these days are expected to recognize C-4 and Semtex, aren’t they? Not in there, was it! Just some loose wires, nothing to worry about. Not to mention that Muslim kids these days would never have heard about the “War on Terror” would they? It’s not like it’s on TV or anything, so I’m sure this Islamic kid knew nothing about it and had no idea his project could be misconstrued.
So why is everybody getting their knickers in a knot over this simple childish misunderstanding? Some of you seem to forget that Islam is the Religion of Peace! Who ever heard of something as nutty as Islamic “terrorism.” It’s those Christians that are causing all the problems, right?
I just hope that this boy has finished his project before he proudly shows it off to Pres. Obama; wouldn’t want any loose wires then, would we! I bet it’ll “ring” real loud!
Yes, it is a ridiculous idea. When you hear hooves think “horse”, not “zebra”. When a kid comes to school with something long and thin, think “poster” or “telescope”, not “rifle”. And when he comes with something that looks like an science project, think “science project”, not “bomb”. The fact that every once in a while a kid brings a rifle to school and shoots people doesn’t change that; the chance exists, but it’s minuscule, and it’s insane to jump to that conclusion. Even if he’s a weird white kid who wears trenchcoats and is bullied. Or if he’s Moslem. These factors may increase the risk factor, perhaps even double it, but it’s still too small for any normal person to worry about.
Media making something out of nothing , kid ain’t charged and he’s got a story that will will trump all others, that he could brag about for his whole life. Nothing here
Kid’s a terrorist midget making a test run, way I see it. Hang ‘im.
I also blame the technical ignorance of the school staff and police, and their ignorance of their ignorance, which prevented them from obtaining the opinion of someone who knew something about electronics before making asses of themselves.
Is a gun without bullets ok to bring to a school?
Any fool can tell you it is the bullets that are the explosive projectile. So without ammo children who choose to bring a harmless mechanical device should likewise be left alone?
(H/T FR) The clock is likely a disassembled ca 1970 Radio Shack clock. Here’s the study and some comments:
http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/
He didn’t build that.
The leftists reality-challenged parasites are the ones who started this idi0tic, thoughtless and reactionary process and no that it has led to one of the oh-so-precious protected classes getting caught in the web of absurdity, you want to pin it on those that had nothing to do with it.
What the..the kid refused to answer questions about his intentions from school personnel and the police? Then the family refused to show up for meetings with school officials, the police and the mayor? Instead they hire a lawyer and have a press conference when those meetings were scheduled?
This is not what it seems. Frank Gaffney thinks it’s an influence operation.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/18/if-it-walks-like-an-influence-operation/
Just for starters, why a metal case for an electronics project? Anyone who has actually done any electronic experimenting would use a non-conductive case, especially anyone of that age.
Lots of Virtue Signaling on this page by arm chair explosive “experts”…
Please stop pretending you would have “known” its not a bomb.
First off, you can google IEDs and find plastic exploslives designed to look like a circuit board… so there goes your “no explosives in there duh” retorts.
Second, to be a functioning IED, all it needs is a battery attached and the explosives. So while the Virtue Signalers here are all patting each other on the back over how enlightened and super smart the are, the adults are checking the kids backpack and locker to see if stored explosives separately.
And stop pretending the kid is a genius. He ripped out the guts of an alarm clock and transplanted them into a pencil box. No that big a deal.
Some of you sound like the Micheal Brown crowd, ginning up outrage because “a racist cop executed a defenseless black kid in the stree while he was surrendering”. Try to not be so naïve. There is much more to this story.
My son is a military bomb tech. He saw the x-ray of this clock and he said if they had called him, he would have blown the device in place after evacuating the school. The school acted properly as did the police but the media and the president are WAY out of line.
A Muslim, whose father is an activist Muslim, makes a timing devise to look like a bomb, and takes it to school. Then shows outrage that some notice that it is a timing device that looks like a bomb taken to school by a Muslim teen whose father is a known Muslim activist. Be nice to send him and father back to Sudan where he ran for president.