Chicken Shit America!

[trumad]

Texas high school student arrested, suspended after bringing homemade clock to school



The 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]

1. This is fucked up on some many levels.

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]

29. I hope...

... that his parents sue the living shit out of that @$$hole teacher, the @$$hole school district, and the @$$hole police officers.

[dae]

30. Agree! n/t

[hobbit709]

2. If that kind of paranoia existed when I was in school, I'd STILL be in jail. Class of '68.

[LiberalArkie]

13. I graduated in 66 and at any point in time the chem lab was always being repaired due to explosions

[dae]

32. We usually had to evacuate the whole lab wing,

once or twice a year.

[elehhhhna]

3. if the teacher thought it was a bomb,

Wouldn't s/he evacuate the classroom? Wth???

[uponit7771]

11. +1

[WDIM]

4. suspended for making a clock.

that is a truly sad story.

[trumad]

6. Funny thing is---

Where was the bomb?

[newfie11]

5. Suspended because of stupidity!!!!!

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]

21. Suspended while being brown and Muslim

Paranoia and bigotry

This would not have happened if his family were rich, white, faux Christians "pillars of the community".

[brer cat]

22. Bingo! nt

[newfie11]

41. Sad but true

I don't know this country anymore!

[sarge43]

42. This country has always been like this

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]

7. this from a country that was once terrorized by a LightBright

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare

[Cyrano]

8. If his name wasn't Mohamed,

my guess is that this would not have happened.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

39. You guess wrong. Non-Muslim children have been hemmed-up for biting

toaster pasties into the shape of a gun.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. "Yup, that's who I thought it was."

That officer should be fired. Old school racist.

[hobbit709]

10. Since it was in Irving TX he should have put a Dallas Cowboys logo on his clock.

Then they would have all crowded around him and slapped him on the back.

[csziggy]

43. Following that they questioned Ahmed for over an hour

Without letting him call his parents or any other responsible adult - even though he asked repeatedly to be allowed to call his parents.

[lonestarnot]

12. Are you fucking kidding me?

[jalan48]

14. Looks like a lot of scared sheep in tough ole Texas to me.

No disrespect meant to the good Democrats and Progressives living there however.

[Roy Rolling]

15. How to Radicalize People 101

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]

16. It's not so much that 'it looked like a bomb' as it is 'he looked like a Mohamed', I expect. /nt

[mountain grammy]

17. Yes, chicken shits indeed. Come on, America..

[Shrike47]

18. Sometimes it's embarrassing to be an American.

I hope he sues.

[whathehell]

31. Sometimes it's embarrassing to be human...Checked out Hungary lately?

We don't have a lock on this sort of thing.

[lame54]

19. School is no place to show intelligence and ingenuity

[kacekwl]

20. Again a little conversation with the student

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]

23. TEXAS high school

TEXAS! - where they're busy writing new Tex-books for Christians. Poor kid's just a victim of geography.

[The2ndWheel]

24. He, or the engineering teacher, should have kept it in his classroom

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]

28. If his name were Andy Jorgensen or something, we wouldn't even be having the conversation.

[The2ndWheel]

36. Possibly. Life can suck.

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.

[trumad]

38. Why?

It's clearly a clock.

Would a bomb have an errr bomb attached to it?

[The2ndWheel]

40. Because people?

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]

44. Bullshit. He brought it to school. Does the school have a 'no clocks' policy? No? Then buh-bye.

I have bag full of fucks that I give out. Oh wait, it's empty.

[cantbeserious]

25. Right Wing America - Killing Ingenuity And Creativity - Daily - What A Message For Children

eom

[liberal N proud]

26. This kid is dangerous to the status quo

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]

27. and after all this, they still suspended him?

what a depressingly stupid and scared country we have become...

[HeartoftheMidwest]

33. On the other hand......................

...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]

34. Texas is NOT representative of America as a whole..Even their tourism ads admit that

they are "a whole other country".

[d_legendary1]

35. I'd hate to see what they would have done to him

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]

37. Islamophobia is the least of the souths problem. Whites are still afraid of American Indians

scalping the whites and black men raping the white women.