Now you can't even bring a clock to school

[actaeon277]

Being in, essentially, a small briefcase doesn't help.

Projects are built in boxes. It prevents the electricity from zapping people.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Projects are built in boxes. It prevents the electricity from zapping people.

Looks more like a bomb than a poptart looks like a gun.

There's not a security stop on earth that you could get through with that thing. Not defending the school/cops... they should have done their due diligence here... but let's not kid ourselves, that doesn't give the first impression of "clock."

 

[mrjarrell]

Being in, essentially, a small briefcase doesn't help.

A briefcase? You think that's anything more than a pencil case? Look at the picture. See that human thumb in the lower left corner. Now do a simple comparison. That "briefcase" is a pencil case. Something thousands of kids carry to school every day. Now they're all potential bombs? Sheesh...

 

[w_ADAM_d88]

In high school shop class we built a potato canon as a class and even took it out to the football field and fired it at the porta johns across the field. Now a days that teacher would probably be stoned to death on town square and every student in that class arrested. Give the kid a break.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

A briefcase? You think that's anything more than a pencil case? Look at the picture. See that human thumb in the lower left corner. Now do a simple comparison. That "briefcase" is a pencil case. Something thousands of kids carry to school every day. Now they're all potential bombs? Sheesh...

The thumb is holding a photo, so sizes aren't relative.

But yes, it is smaller than a traditional briefcase. But nothing about that image screams "clock" from that angle.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Being in, essentially, a small briefcase doesn't help.

I would be suspicious of that device, personally, and I am trained and practiced at searching for IEDs. When I heard clock, I was not picturing that. Glad it got straightened out, but after seeing that it's more understandable.

 

[actaeon277]

If it's a bomb, then where's the explosives?
Since you are actually looking at the guts of a device.

Anyone here ever take electronics or work in electronics?
I have a dozen like that at home. And i'm pretty sure I have one like that in a cardboard box here at work.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

If it's a bomb, then where's the explosives?
Since you are actually looking at the guts of a device.

Anyone here ever take electronics or work in electronics?
I have a dozen like that at home. And i'm pretty sure I have one like that in a cardboard box here at work.

The average schoolmarm doesn't know what explosives look like, I'd imagine. That green circuit board could be C4 for all they know.

Wires and circuits = whatever the worst thing a teacher can think of at the time. Someone's imagination got away from them (some over-reacting busybody), and caused this cluster****.

 

[actaeon277]

The average schoolmarm doesn't know what explosives look like, I'd imagine. That green circuit board could be C4 for all they know.

Wires and circuits = whatever the worst thing a teacher can think of at the time. Someone's imagination got away from them (some over-reacting busybody), and caused this cluster****.

Right. Someone's imagination DID get away.
Kids probably been bringing in stuff looks like that for decades, if the school was anything like mine.

 

[actaeon277]

 

[BehindBlueI's]

If it's a bomb, then where's the explosives?
Since you are actually looking at the guts of a device.

Anyone here ever take electronics or work in electronics?
I have a dozen like that at home. And i'm pretty sure I have one like that in a cardboard box here at work.

Obviously with the full story known it isn't a bomb and there aren't any. However at first glance I see where it could be suspicious and warrant further investigation. If you think you couldn't have explosives that aren't visible when the lid is open I could make some real surprises for you. Until you manipulated it, how do you know the liner doesn't conceal anything? The LED face?

 

[actaeon277]

Obviously with the full story known it isn't a bomb and there aren't any. However at first glance I see where it could be suspicious and warrant further investigation. If you think you couldn't have explosives that aren't visible when the lid is open I could make some real surprises for you. Until you manipulated it, how do you know the liner doesn't conceal anything? The LED face?

Once again. If these things have been brought into the school for decades, then why the difference now?

 

[actaeon277]

Explosives have been placed in cell phones. Are we stopping students from bringing cells?

 

[Leo]

I do not think anyone should feel this was just "picking on him" as a single instance.

Over the last several years we have seen students removed from school for many things.
We had girls on their periods kicked out for unauthorized mydol tablets. Students kicked out for sharing pepto bismal, Students kicked out for having a butter knife in their lunch buckets to spread cream cheese. Someone help me remember the name of the Indiana boy that got in trouble for bringing PHOTOGRAPHS of a skeet shooting championship where he participated in Jr. classification. I remember mailing money to help fund legal action on that one. How about the boy in North Carolina who was suspended because he drove his grandfathers truck to school. Grandpa's tackle box was in the truck, and a fish knife was in the tackle box. Or students wearing "T" shirts from bible camp that were in trouble under the "No offensive shirts" rule.

The whole "Zero Tolerance" thing became "ZERO Common sense" overnight. For this students parents to act like it is all about skin color is pretty irrational. For the media to take it into a race baiting freenzy is ridiculous.

Call me cynical, the whole clock thing might have been a set up by his parents to sue the school.

 

[JTScribe]

Does the kid who chewed his Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun get a White House invite?

No?

How about the kid who got suspended for wearing an American flag t-shirt?

No?

Huh.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Once again. If these things have been brought into the school for decades, then why the difference now?

Because IEDs are a thing now? Because with the Internet it is quite possible for a child to learn to make improvised explosives? Because Islamic extremists target youth via social media and can provide them with bomb making techniques and motivation to do so?

It's not decades ago any more. You used to be able to set down your suitcase and go to the bathroom while it sat outside. Would you hang out next to an unattended bag at an airport with zero concern today?

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Explosives have been placed in cell phones. Are we stopping students from bringing cells?

Would you not be concerned if you saw a cell phone attached to a suitcase by wires? Or would you just shrug it off as someone's lab experiment?

 

[T.Lex]

My own 11 year old son spent part of the summer working on a beginner soldering kit to make a siren. It is smaller, but basically very similar to what that kid did to make a clock. Green circuit board? Check. Wires? Check. Speaker instead of LED panel? Check. Of course, we added LEDs to light up like a siren, too.

Point being, that kid did absolutely nothing wrong and should be proud that he did that. The engineering teacher saw no problem with it. Maybe the administrators should have checked with him/her before freaking out? You know, the one person in the building who could probably tell them what it actually was?

 

[chipbennett]

I would be suspicious of that device, personally, and I am trained and practiced at searching for IEDs. When I heard clock, I was not picturing that. Glad it got straightened out, but after seeing that it's more understandable.

Seeing the picture reinforces my second theory (the first being that this was simply a case of the schools being typically brain-dead):

The kid "invented" this in 20 minutes on the Sunday night before school. It was essentially an afterthought - not something one would take any particular pride in having accomplished. The kid's father is a well-known Muslim SJW. CAIR is quite active in the area. It is entirely possible that this was intended to be a set-up - a stunt designed and intended to elicit exactly the response that they got, in order to generate a bunch of faux outrage over perceived Islamophobia.

 

[T.Lex]

Seeing the picture reinforces my second theory (the first being that this was simply a case of the schools being typically brain-dead):

The kid "invented" this in 20 minutes on the Sunday night before school. It was essentially an afterthought - not something one would take any particular pride in having accomplished. The kid's father is a well-known Muslim SJW. CAIR is quite active in the area. It is entirely possible that this was intended to be a set-up - a stunt designed and intended to elicit exactly the response that they got, in order to generate a bunch of faux outrage over perceived Islamophobia.

WTF?

Could you create something like this in 20 minutes?

Seriously.
http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-AmeriKit-Learn-Solder-Kit/dp/B0009Z3JJA

Make A Digital Clock From Scratch

ETA:

If he'd done this one, he'd be taken out by drone from 5 miles away, along with half his family. Or nuked from orbit if INGO voted.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Explosive-Alarm-Clock/