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Ahmed Mohamed: 'Clock boy' seeks $15m from city and school
- ronald_dregan 11y agoworthless piece of sub-human shit, just like his family
- phaed 11y agoDoesn't deserve jack shit, maybe just the public apology. Can't fault him for going for the money grab though, smart move.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- kelukelugames 11y agoGotta ask for $15 mil just to get a $10k settlement.
- jonlucc 11y agoI assume this is partially about his detention without parental notification, but maybe that would be the city, not the school. It seems a pretty big error on the part of the administration and police.
- AdeptusAquinas 11y agoSeems like an effective way to teach the state not to be so racist/reactionary. Assuming he wins. Of course the lawyers will no doubt take most of it.
- KevinEldon 11y agoOr effective bait for activists to troll public institutions for publicity and cash settlements. Settlements paid by tax payers that take funds from education, public safety, infrastructure, and other public insitutions.
- WizardlySquid 11y agoNo, it signals that the only way to get ahead is to rent seek and ask oppressed instead of working hard to make the world a better place. I don't know how you think it's racist? The police could just have just as well thought it was a bomb, this just in timed bombs actually do look like bombs and the police were probably just being overly cautious. It's not like there haven't been students that want to blow up their teachers.
- gamesbrainiac 11y agoThis move really undermines the overwhelming good will that people had towards Ahmed.
- oxide 11y agoI couldn't disagree more. Schools & cities both ought to live in fear of lawsuits to stop this kind of nonsense from occuring as a kneejerk reaction and give common sense an opportunity to prevail.
- striking 11y agoWell, it allows certain opportunistic individuals to claim he's just in it for the money (and it does look rather bad, although I'm certainly not that reactionary). It comes as a charge to taxpayers, as well. Also, I find the phrase "live in fear" to be a little... strong. Is that really what you meant?
- bsg75 11y agoAt 15 mil, how is it anything but opportunistic?
- abrookewood 11y agoLiving in fear of lawsuits is why we don't have climbing equipment in parks and diving boards in pools anymore. Lawsuits need to be scaled back and commonsense returned.
- oxide 11y agothat's idealistic at best. the society we live in is not one of common sense for the most part. we want the same thing, common sense to prevail, but the difference is I've accepted the litigious nature of today's world and you have a fantasy of it suddenly going away. A little shocked I was downvoted here for sharing my opinion, are we really that intent on becoming a circlejerk? guess that's just the way things go eventually.
- 11y ago
- dlsx 11y agoNice Cock Ahmed
- jaxomlotus 11y agoSorry, that seems opportunistic. I felt bad for him, but no way he was scarred to the tune of $15 million. Even the bad experience had a major upside - he was offered an internship to Twitter and an invitation to the White House. Schools are budget-deprived enough without adding frivolous lawsuits to the mix. In this case everyone involved in suspending him should have been seriously reprimanded and an apology given (and I'm surprised one wasn't). But a $15 million lawsuit isn't the answer.
- jonlucc 11y agoI think this is how you get schools to care and avoid doing the same in the future.
- toomuchtodo 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punitive_damages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punitive_damages > Punitive damages or exemplary damages are damages intended to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit. Although the purpose of punitive damages is not to compensate the plaintiff, the plaintiff will receive all or some portion of the punitive damage award.
- jaxomlotus 11y agoShould schools really not take security seriously though? Do we really want people second guessing themselves when it comes to safety? That precedent is asking for trouble.
- dllthomas 11y agoHow does safety enter into it? Everyone knew it wasn't a bomb. Some people thought it was pretending to be a bomb, other people contend that it wasn't pretending to be a bomb. How are you worried about people second guessing themselves, in that context? Schools have procedures for when there's a suspected bomb. They don't look like what was done, here. There was never a suspected bomb - only a suspected hoax.
- mtimjones 11y agoI encourage everyone to dig into this story a bit more. This family acted in a provocative way, and now they to attempt to punish the school and taxpayers.
- HarryHirsch 11y agoJust to remind you: the great Civil Rights era cases were all plants, and care was taken by the organizers to find a presentable defendant with a clean record. Lady Chatterley was a plant, too.
- Ollinson 11y agoI think people are more disgusted by how self serving the "plant" is. Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus to support a movement. Ahmed Mohammed brought a dismantled clock in a suitcase to school to further the political ends of his father's career.
- mcphage 11y ago> This family acted in a provocative way Lucky for them, then, that the school and police were as racist as his family expected, and they walked right into his trap.
- metaphorm 11y agoexactly. if the school conducted itself in a humane and respectful manner in the first place there would never have been an incident at all, which is exactly the point. there should have never been an incident at all. regardless of whether or not mohammed and his family were well-prepared to exploit the media for a favorable narrative, they were still wronged. even if they deliberately provoked the incident, they were still wronged.
- lingben 11y agoThis had nothing to do with race. Children have gotten into serious trouble just for drawing guns (see links below). This is a result of "zero tolerance" policies which have been in place for a while now. This child repeatedly brought out a clearly provocative object which he didn't even make and which looked like a count down timer in a small container. He also ignored e very single teacher who politely asked him to put it away. Until finally one teacher got freaked out enough to take action. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486036/Eight-year-old-boy-threatened-expulsion-school-drawing-pictures-Halloween-costumes-included-guns-knives.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486036/Eight-year-o... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/13-year-old-suspended-for-doodling-gun/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/13-year-old-suspended-for-doodli... I don't agree with his arrest just like I don't agree with those kids getting into trouble for drawing guns. But to try to paint this as a race issue is plainly ignorant at best. When you look at the details of this case (the father who is a Sudanese politician, the sister who tried something similar a few years ago, Mark Cuban saying that when he was talking to him he was being fed lines and told what to say, the fact that he didn't make the clock and has not even a cursory knowledge of electronics commensurate with his age or skill - claiming in an interview to 'solder' CPUs, etc.) then it becomes clear what this was really about. I feel sorry for the child because it is clear that his father orchestrated all of this.
- addisonj 11y agoRegardless of what you think about all the actors at play here, this is one of those stories to look back on that says... something... about the internet. A few million tweets led to media attention, discourse about schools and race, meetings with presidents and scholarships to prestigious universities. All good things and all was once again well in the world and the internet won. However, with time, more details come out that make the whole thing not quite as clear cut and it becomes pretty obvious that there might be more than to one side of the story that we all jumped into. I don't pass any judgement, it just makes me wonder how to bring balance to the social media firestorms and convey a more nuanced perspective to stories like this.
- hannibalhorn 11y agoI wasn't sure what you were talking about, with respect to the other side of the story, but after searching ran across this article: http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/ http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engin... Not sure how I missed it, but if anyone else did as well, it really looks like he just moved the guts of an old clock into a new casing. He didn't really design any circuitry at all.
- mcphage 11y ago> it really looks like he just moved the guts of an old clock into a new casing. He didn't really design any circuitry at all He's 14 years old and learning electronics—I'm not sure what light this sheds on anything?
- fleitz 11y agoIt sheds light on the issue in that his parents likely orchestrated the whole thing.
- Ollinson 11y agoIt's unfortunate that the "hoax" label on this clock story is being considered by some a conspiracy theory. All it takes is 15 minute to look into the political history of the kids father and the nature of the clock that he "built" to realize something is amiss.
- nigrioid 11y agoHe didn't even make the clock: http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/ http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engin...
- lemiant 11y agoThis makes no sense. The standard award for one death is $8m. In no world is what he went through equal two people losing their lives.
- fleitz 11y agoYou obviously haven't been around the internet too long, if another kid takes a apart a clock and puts it in a briefcase he could easily cause $15 million in damages from cultural appropriation alone.
- jrockway 11y agoLiving people appeal better to the emotions of jurors. If you want a lot of money out of a lawsuit, don't die.
- fiatjaf 11y agoAn asshole.
- fleitz 11y agoI wish I got $15 million every time I got called to the principals office.
- InclinedPlane 11y agoThis thread makes me want to stop coming to HN.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoWhy is it so? This thread is one of the reasons why I come to HN. It turns out that yet another important story of this year was utter fabrication and lies. I wouldn't know about it if not for HN, and would keep believing falsehoods.
- foldr 11y agoThat point of view on the story has been covered all over the mainstream media. E.g.: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09/22/clock-controversy-may-cause-headache-for-obama-as-doubts-raised-about-story.html http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09/22/clock-controversy...
- TeMPOraL 11y agoI don't read mainstream media. Too much bullshit. If something is important enough, it'll pop up on HN - usually with the people in the know pointing out all the blatant lies made by the news source.
- foldr 11y agoWell, sure, if HN is your only source of information, then you wouldn't know anything if it wasn't for HN.
- LukeWalsh 11y agoInternet outraged to lose boy hero. Meanwhile Ahmed laughs all the way to the bank.
- andyl 11y agoThe clock boy incident was a clever hoax. Ahmed and his family may not be great engineers, but showed themselves masters of our media and legal system.
- kevindeasis 11y agoWhy the internet changed their attitude and started hating Ahmed Mohammed https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tzyos/eli5_ahmed_mohamed_why_does_reddit_hate_him_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tzyos/e... TLDR: People believe everything was set up by his sociopath Dad, who has a background in being obsessed with the spot light.
- xaver 11y agoInteresting to watch all the bitter fighting over control of the narrative. I feel like the comment threads all over the internet are a more interesting story than the story itself.
- sciguy77 11y agoWhen I was in middle school a kid got suspended for bringing a paper mache firework to class (basically just a fist-sized cylinder with a wick). It turns out it was completely hollow and didn't contain any black powder, but he still got a suspension since it looked like a bomb. The kid was white. Islamophobia is very much a real problem, but it seems reasonable that any kid in the same situation might get in trouble as well. I haven't read the Steve Jobs book in awhile, but didn't Wozniak bring a metronome to his high school that they mistook for a bomb? Again, I'm not saying racism and Islomophobia in our school system don't exist, but there's a long history of educators mistaking harmless devices for explosives, and I think its a tad presumptuous to say that this issue is only about race. Just my 2c.
- rezashirazian 11y agoI wonder if they got persuaded by lawyers to do this.
- lewisl9029 11y agoI'm seeing a lot of comments on how this was all orchestrated or how he didn't actually make the clock. Even if any of that were true, I'm not sure why it should change anything at all. The issue from the very beginning was the school's reaction to the clock. If any of them really did get fooled into thinking it was a bomb, then they definitely wouldn't have handled it the way it did (handling the bomb themselves instead of evacuating and calling in professionals). This was simply a display of power by the school officials and police, and an attempt to make an example out of a kid that was somewhat disobedient. If they acted reasonably, this whole ordeal would have ended there and there would have been nothing to further orchestrate by the kid's parents. They didn't. And now they're paying the price and being made an example of themselves. The irony is delicious.
- escherize 11y agoExcept they're not the ones paying the price. Anyone who pays taxes is instead. There doesn't appear to be any accountability for this massive mishandling of events. I think the next group of people who should get rights (along with moral agency, and all the other hard parts of freedom) should be children.
- lewisl9029 11y agoTrue enough. Society is collectively paying the price, instead of the individuals actually responsible. That is unfortunate, but I am still cautiously optimistic that this could lead to people in positions of power to think twice before abusing it.
- coleifer 11y agoSchools are already hurting so badly from frivolous lawsuits and oversensitive, opportunistic people. Schools are one of the few institutions trying to actually do some good. Don't kick them when they're already down.
- gjkood 11y agoI see plenty of comments saying that the parents orchestrated this. If you truly believe this, I can only assume that you are not now or never have been a parent. If you truly believe that a parent could send their child into a situation where there is a high probability of a fatal or long term negative outcome for the child, then you do not know what being a parent is. There are plenty of bad parents, but believing this is orchestrated by the parents is the height of cynicism.
- dredwerker 11y agoHow about balloon boy? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon_boy_hoax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon_boy_hoax I am a parent and I wouldn't do this but it doesn't mean others wouldn't.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago> If you truly believe that a parent could send their child into a situation where there is a high probability of a fatal or long term negative outcome for the child, then you do not know what being a parent is. I pass such "parents" on the street every day. Begging is an organized operation in big cities in Poland, and there were reports that children are actually drugged or fed alcohol, so that they're asleep. Fatalities happen. There's a lot of sad stuff going on in this world.