4 ms·

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

by ahmad19526 11y ago

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 11y ago
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.
- peejaybee 11y ago
  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 11y ago
    The response is pretty simple. If they can never, ever admit they were wrong, we need to deprive them of their "authority".
    - goldenkey 11y ago
      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 11y ago
        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.
- t2015_08_25 11y ago
  > 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 11y ago
    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.
    - WiseWeasel 11y ago
      When did DIY electronics become actionable evidence of terrorism?
      - tomswartz07 11y ago
        "..AAANND HOOOOMME OF THE BRAVVVEEEE!"
    - ashark 11y ago
      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.
      - 11y ago
- hencq 11y ago
  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 11y ago
As well as a diversified student body, in my experience. And yet, no bombs.
austenallred 11y ago
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 11y ago
  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 11y ago
    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 11y ago
      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.
  - jkestner 11y ago
    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.
pcote 11y ago
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.

x5n1 11y ago

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.

peejaybee 11y ago
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 11y ago
  The response is pretty simple. If they can never, ever admit they were wrong, we need to deprive them of their "authority".
  - goldenkey 11y ago
    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 11y ago
      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.
t2015_08_25 11y ago
> 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 11y ago
  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.
  - WiseWeasel 11y ago
    When did DIY electronics become actionable evidence of terrorism?
    - tomswartz07 11y ago
      "..AAANND HOOOOMME OF THE BRAVVVEEEE!"
  - ashark 11y ago
    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.
    - 11y ago
hencq 11y ago
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 11y ago

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

austenallred 11y ago

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 11y ago
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 11y ago
  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 11y ago
    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.
- jkestner 11y ago
  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.

pcote 11y ago

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.