Ahmed - The Clock Inventor

[McAvoy]

Anyone paying attention to this? At first I was one of those "Oh it's in Texas and the kid is a Muslim? must be an over reaction by the school." But, as you start reading about it, turns out the clock he 'invented' is justa clock he took out of it's original casing and put in a smallish briefcase looking thing (pencil case but it has a almost cliche suitcase bomb look to it).

Apparently, many teachers looked at it and verifed it wasn't a bomb and let him continue on in class. Then in one class the alarm went off for no reason which some suspected he intentionally set it for that time for a reaction.

Not to mention that alot suspect his father put him to it as a statement or a way to gain publicity.

Article about his father

New York Post's newest article about it

Basically I think what this comes down to is if the kid is innocent was naive to think that something like that wouldn't attract negative attention, then the parents should have had said something to him saying that this is equal to bringing in a water pistol.

Why was the kid arrested may have been an over reaction even when the kid decided to play dumb during the questioning. So maybe there should be an outcry over that.

[Graham Kennedy]

I've seen a few people talking about this. Here's the clock in question :



First off, yeah, he didn't "build a clock" as such. What he did was take the innards out of a clock and puild them into this case. Some people have used that to have a go at him, but jesus guys, he's fricken 14 years old. That's still pretty impressive if you ask me. How many modern 14 year olds would even be interested to try something like this?

Second, yeah, I can see a teacher being a little nervous about him waving that thing around. I imagine the situation probably began with a teacher saying "Um, yeah it's not a bomb, but it kinda looks a bit like one and it could freak people out, so put it away kid." And I can see that escalating in light of zero tolerance policies for this kind of thing, which American schools really have to have. But I doubt anybody seriously thought it might be a bomb - notice that despite their understandable hair-trigger on things like this, nobody called the bomb squad in and nobody evacuated the school. So nobody, cops included, thought it was a bomb.

I gather they arrested him for perpetrating a hoax? Unless there's a good deal more to this than it seems, that looks like a serious over-reaction. He made a clock, whenever anybody asked him about it he said it was a clock. If he'd been going around saying "I'll blow you all up!" and waving it then sure, it's a hoax, but he didn't. Seems like a massive over-reaction from the police.

[McAvoy]

Well the other thing is he did admit he thought it looked suspicious before he even entered the school.

Actually I did more than just take the innards of a clock I actually made it from pieces. Granted I did not make the parts but I assembled it. Anyone can take apart something and put it in another container.

To me the motivation seems suspect.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

What happened to Ahmed was a massive overreaction, and most of the stuff coming out about, "It's just an alarm clock!" seems like a lot of backpedaling. They're saying it was a hoax bomb... except he NEVER said it was a bomb and continually insisted it was a clock, which it was. he showed his teacher it and said it was a clock. There was no really rational reaction to what he did.

[McAvoy]

What happened to Ahmed was a massive overreaction, and most of the stuff coming out about, "It's just an alarm clock!" seems like a lot of backpedaling. They're saying it was a hoax bomb... except he NEVER said it was a bomb and continually insisted it was a clock, which it was. he showed his teacher it and said it was a clock. There was no really rational reaction to what he did.

Actually it's more to that. Reports say that he went to class and each teacher looked at the thing and continued on. Let's remember that the thing looks like a pencil case from the outside so he was showing it off to people. That isn't a big deal by itself. The clock went off in the middle of a class. Not sure if this is where the school itself got involved.

The cops were called because when the school started to question him about the clock and the reason why he decided to make it look the way it was, he became passive about it. The school then assumed he made it as a hoax to mess with people. All schools have a zero tolerance for that. You get suspended for having z water pistol.

He was passive to the cops who questioned him as well.

In the end, what escalated it was him being passive about answering why he made into looking like a suitcase bomb and the authorities reacting to that.

Let's keep in mind, at no point was the cops brought in because someone thought it was a bomb. The cops were brought in to figure out why it looked like a bomb.

[sunnyside]

I think there have been ridiculously over reactive policies at a lot of schools for far to long here in the US. This is just the first time that they've slammed into political correctness. Maybe it's a weird variant on white and male privilege, but if something ridiculous happens to a white boy we all figure it must just be the policy. So an argument of "it's just a pop tart" didn't really go anywhere when that went down. Everyone not in the NRA seemed to be like "don't chew the pastry if you can't do the time."

Since this thing at a minimum disrupted class by beeping and would be much more likely to frighten someone than a colorful pastry, I'd say this is the worse of the two.

But obviously both cases are ridiculous. I'm hoping this serves as something of a precedent moving forward that gets schools to return a little to sanity.

[Mikey]

I bthink the point that we're failing to discuss is that he wouldn't have been arrested if his name were "Tom Johnson."

[McAvoy]

I bthink the point that we're failing to discuss is that he wouldn't have been arrested if his name were "Tom Johnson."

Actually he got arrested for basically not answering questions. They wanted to know if this was all case of him not knowing any better or a hoax.

Just go let you know, when I went to school many students got arrested for bomb hoaxes of all races. Ewing High in my freshman year was almost famous for it.

The more I read about it the more I think there was more to the story than him just putting a clock into a pencil case.

[Mikey]

Hw is it a hoax if the alleged perpetrator never claimed the subject of the supposed hoax?

[McAvoy]

Hw is it a hoax if the alleged perpetrator never claimed the subject of the supposed hoax?

People say the whole thing was a planned event which means the clock was intended to draw attention. It went through six teachers before the seventh decided to act on it.

It makes sense in that this kid was used as a pawn by his father who was a presidential runner, is a known speaker for Muslim agendas and that because his kid has a Muslim name walking around with a classic look of a briefcase bomb, that it would draw attention.

I mean the kid got tens of thousands of dollars in support and Microsoft sent him ten thousand dollars worth of stuff. He got the White House attention.

This whole thing because in the end, he refused to answer questions once someone started to ask them. That is what it came down to. No bomb squad, no SWAT team. He got arrested for not answering questions

[Mikey]

He got arrested for not answering questions

Doesn't anything about that statement sound horribly wrong to you?

[McAvoy]

He got arrested for not answering questions

Doesn't anything about that statement sound horribly wrong to you?

You do realize that Texas has a law about bomb hoaxes in schools? Also it's not like he spent time in jail. He sat with a police officer at the station until his parents and a lawyer came over. Also my past experience with bomb threats and bomb hoaxes in Ewing makes this normal. The fact they had to wait until for some reason the clock alarm went off in the middle of the class because other teachers were afraid of making a scene because of his name is interesting.

Here is the thing about bomb hoaxes. Zero tolerance. Even if the fake bomb was inspected was determined not to be a bomb it was still disruption in class. The student would go over to the principal's office and have a talk to determine if it was a bomb hoax to mess with people because it's not a common thing to do with kids, you know mess with people, to get a rise out of people, to do things because they could, standard practice. Ahmed refused to answer questions. Cops were called, and refused to answer questions without a lawyer.

This kid refused to answer simple questions about his clock. It was as if he wanted to get attention.

Let me ask you, if you built a clock and it looked suspicious, wouldn't you want to answer questions so the school principal wouldn't get involved and not even the cops?

So why didn't Ahmed?

Oh and apparently, when the clock went off was when the teacher got the school administration involved. From what I understand, the case itself was a beatup one and for some reason had non connecting wire tied around the handle which also alerted the teacher.

[Mikey]

Who cares about zero tolerance for bomb threats/bomb hoaxes - HE DIDN'T MAKE ONE. Not answering questions =/= making a positive claim that the device was a bomb.

[McAvoy]

Who cares about zero tolerance for bomb threats/bomb hoaxes - HE DIDN'T MAKE ONE. Not answering questions =/= making a positive claim that the device was a bomb.

It wasn't about it being a bomb by that point. Cops knew, the school knew it wasn't a bomb. No bomb squad or SWAT team was called. The school did not evacuate.

The whole thing was about if Ahmed intentionally made something to look like a bomb, aka bomb hoax. The school and the cops wanted to know if it was a bomb hoax or not. He could have explained himself from the beginning but decided not to.

Hell, once he showed off his 'invention' to his teacher, she warned him not to bring the clock to other classes. Maybe he wanted to show it off to other classes.

Look at this way, there are toy guns and water guns out there that look like real guns. A close look will show that they are toys and harmless. But, you will get suspended for bringing them in. There is no ifs and or buts. Hell, when I went through high school, in the workshops you were told specifically you could not make anything that would look like a weapon.

See the only difference here is that the kid has a Muslim name and that he 'invented' his clock. Whereas, you just buy the toy guns.

[Mikey]

And likewise, the response to an "Ahmed" bringing in that hypothetical toy gun would be far stronger than to a "John" bringing the same toy gun. I will never be dissuaded from the opinion that if that clock was brought into school by a young white male by the name of Chistopher Smith, the strongest response that might have occurred would have been a stern talking-to.