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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChicken Shit America!
Texas high school student arrested, suspended after bringing homemade clock to schoolThe freshman at MacArthur High School was detained by police Monday after the principal and authorities were shown his invention. Mohamed said he enjoys making radios and other gadgets at home, so on Sunday, he spent about 20 minutes putting together the clock, using a circuit board, digital display, and case. He told The Dallas Morning News he showed his engineering teacher at the beginning of the school day, who said it was "really nice," then added, "I would advise you not to show any other teachers." Mohamed kept the clock in his bag, but an English teacher heard the alarm go off during class, and he showed her the device. Mohamed said she told him it "looks like a bomb," then kept it.
Mohamed said he was in sixth period when the principal, accompanied by a police officer, pulled him from class. He was led to a room where four other officers were waiting for him, including one he had never seen before who said: "Yup, that's who I thought it was." Mohamed said he was searched and told by the principal that if he didn't write a statement, he'd be expelled. Mohamed was handcuffed and taken to a juvenile detention center, where he was fingerprinted. After that, he was released to his parents.
<snip>
He has been suspended from school for three days, which his father finds upsetting. "He just wants to invent good things for mankind," explained Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, a Sudanese immigrant. "But because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-high-school-student-arrested-suspended-after-bringing-homemade-clock-to-school/ar-AAelysP?li=BBgzzfc&ocid=mailsignout
TM99
(8,352 posts)My grandfather was an antiques dealer and restorer. He gave me a love of repairing old clocks, radios, and other sundry 'vintage' electronics that I still do to this day.
This kid should have been encouraged to explore his creativity with electronics. He needs kudos and he needs to be advanced in his studies not suspended because he has a Muslim name and built a clock!
We have become such chicken shits indeed!
JustADumbFireman
(59 posts)... that his parents sue the living shit out of that @$$hole teacher, the @$$hole school district, and the @$$hole police officers.
dae
(3,396 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,739 posts)dae
(3,396 posts)once or twice a year.
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)Wouldn't s/he evacuate the classroom? Wth???
WDIM
(1,662 posts)that is a truly sad story.
trumad
(41,692 posts)Where was the bomb?
newfie11
(8,159 posts)What the hell! This is the kind of person this country needs.
Stupid people stifle innovation! I hope this doesn't stop his future inventions!
sarge43
(28,947 posts)Paranoia and bigotry
This would not have happened if his family were rich, white, faux Christians "pillars of the community".
brer cat
(24,673 posts)newfie11
(8,159 posts)I don't know this country anymore!
sarge43
(28,947 posts)50, 60 years ago most of us wouldn't have heard about this. It would have been a black kid or a Hispanic kid or a Native American kid, but it would have business as usual and not worth mentioning even in a local rag. Just bullying the powerless and through fear and violence keeping them in their place.
At least it can't be hidden the way it use to. Maybe there's some hope in that, but it's just possible we'll become numb to it and eventually indifferent.
Business as usual.
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)Cyrano
(15,077 posts)my guess is that this would not have happened.
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)toaster pasties into the shape of a gun.
Baitball Blogger
(46,787 posts)That officer should be fired. Old school racist.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Then they would have all crowded around him and slapped him on the back.
csziggy
(34,141 posts)Without letting him call his parents or any other responsible adult - even though he asked repeatedly to be allowed to call his parents.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)jalan48
(13,921 posts)No disrespect meant to the good Democrats and Progressives living there however.
Roy Rolling
(6,947 posts)If you want to create terrorists, take smart young kids and teach them that the police state will drag you out at any time and lock you up. You know, take your freedom. That thing America is all about---freedom. Take it away from them.
Then, like authoritarian countries torn apart by terrorists, they are happy to dismantle the society that shunned them unjustly.
Congratulations "law and order". You have claimed another innocent victim.
Marr
(20,317 posts)mountain grammy
(26,677 posts)Shrike47
(6,913 posts)I hope he sues.
whathehell
(29,113 posts)We don't have a lock on this sort of thing.
lame54
(35,360 posts)kacekwl
(7,028 posts)and a intelligent teacher could have determined that it WAS just a clock and this poor kid could have received a handshake for his ingenuity. Instead we fly off the handle and start arresting kids . Why talk when we can push someone around. Sad indeed.
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)The2ndWheel
(7,947 posts)It's not the kid made it, or that he's smart, it's that it was in his bag. You can't do that. It's not like kids haven't done stuff with weapons at school before.
Now, suspending him after everything was figured out is dumb. Even the handcuffs are too much. Take him to the principal's office and figure it out.
The clock shouldn't have been in the bag though. Just leave it with the engineering teacher, and get it when the day is done.
marmar
(77,131 posts)The2ndWheel
(7,947 posts)Doesn't change anything though. It's stupid to suspend him after everything was figured out, and he shouldn't have had something like that in his bag unannounced. Nobody is expecting a homemade clock in a backpack.
It's clearly a clock.
Would a bomb have an errr bomb attached to it?
The2ndWheel
(7,947 posts)Everything that was done to the kid after the clock went off is most likely an overreaction. Definitely the suspension, which is dumb. Arresting him is going too far. Take him to the office if need be, figure it out.
Nonetheless, there's little reason to put yourself in a position for people to think you have a weapon of some kind. Yes, him being Muslim probably enters into the overreaction. That sucks. Still, bad shit has happened at schools. Who knows. It's not like kids haven't wanted to use a bomb of some sort before, and teachers not trained in anything but the subject they're teaching may not stop and think in the moment.
So take the clock to the teacher you wanted to show it to, leave it there, and get it at the end of the day. Don't stick it in your bag if it might go off because you actually made a working clock at home. Hell, proudly display it on your desk. Basically do anything but make it look like you're hiding it.
X_Digger
(18,585 posts)I have bag full of fucks that I give out. Oh wait, it's empty.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
liberal N proud
(60,352 posts)If he is smart enough to build an electronic clock, he might just create something that would change the world without the big corporations and we can't have that.
dhill926
(16,392 posts)what a depressingly stupid and scared country we have become...
HeartoftheMidwest
(309 posts)...once this stupid move by the school plays out in court, I suspect this bright young man will have his entire schooling at a top engineering college paid in full.
May he go on to bigger and better things.
whathehell
(29,113 posts)they are "a whole other country".
d_legendary1
(2,586 posts)if he boarded a plane with that clock in the cargo hold. Seems America hasn't gotten over its islamophopia yet.
Given our heritage I don't think we ever will.
LiberalArkie
(15,739 posts)scalping the whites and black men raping the white women.