Can someone in the Irving TX area "draft" this young man?

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by cbale2000

Ok, so when I first heard about this story I was totally behind this kid. Then I actually saw a picture of his clock...



So, I'll still think basically anyone who looked at this for more than 30 seconds should have been able to recognize that this was not, in fact, a bomb. That said, I think, had it been me, I would have found a different way to house the electronics. The metal "briefcase" was... less than ideal.

[/2cents]

The picture is deceiving in relation to the size of the case. it's 8.25" x 5.5" x 2.5" not really "briefcase" size. Its major dimensions are smaller than a sheet of paper (actually about half the size).

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by MechEng83

The picture is deceiving in relation to the size of the case. it's 8.25" x 5.5" x 2.5" not really "briefcase" size. Its major dimensions are smaller than a sheet of paper (actually about half the size).

So closed it looks like a little case. Not pressure cooker in a backpack. Open there is clearly no explosive or shards of metal that you would into a bomb. Maybe the electronics took up too much room?

[neshera]

I don't know why I didn't think of this when I started this thread, but for Heaven's sake don't let him join FRC Team 16!

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by neshera

I don't know why I didn't think of this when I started this thread, but for Heaven's sake don't let him join FRC Team 16!

You mean the Clock Squad?

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by neshera

I don't know why I didn't think of this when I started this thread, but for Heaven's sake don't let him join FRC Team 16!

Team 16 totally needs to send him a tee shirt!! Wear it with pride to the white house.

Disclaimer: I am totally unrelated to Team 16 other than being an admirer of their program. I understand they are discrete as to where they wear their "Bomb Squad" tee shirts.

[ChuckDickerson]

What I’m trying to figure out is how the alarm on the clock went off in his backpack during his 6th period English class. The clock appears to be the AC powered innards with a 9VDC plug for battery backup. If it was in his backpack how was it plugged into the wall?

I am assuming he didn’t actually design/build a clock from scratch but rather assembled parts and pieces from one or more consumer alarm clocks (possibly broken) and put them together in this case and made them work. No matter what he did: design and build a clock from scratch, put broken pieces together, buy a clock kit somewhere online and solder it up, or whatever, I applaud him for good old fashioned inquisitiveness and creativity. His actions should be celebrated not punished. Back when I was a kid I had a habit of “taking things apart to see how they work”. This was encouraged behavior. If something was broken like an alarm clock, a microwave, a TV, a tape deck, a movie projector, etc. I always got to tear into it before it hit the trash. What happened to those days? When did this become something that would get you arrested for attempting to make a “hoax bomb”? Oh wait, I’m sorry, I forgot, I was a white kid.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by ChuckDickerson

What I’m trying to figure out is how the alarm on the clock went off in his backpack during his 6th period English class. The clock appears to be the AC powered innards with a 9VDC plug for battery backup. If it was in his backpack how was it plugged into the wall?

I am assuming he didn’t actually design/build a clock from scratch but rather assembled parts and pieces from one or more consumer alarm clocks (possibly broken) and put them together in this case and made them work. No matter what he did: design and build a clock from scratch, put broken pieces together, buy a clock kit somewhere online and solder it up, or whatever, I applaud him for good old fashioned inquisitiveness and creativity. His actions should be celebrated not punished. Back when I was a kid I had a habit of “taking things apart to see how they work”. This was encouraged behavior. If something was broken like an alarm clock, a microwave, a TV, a tape deck, a movie projector, etc. I always got to tear into it before it hit the trash. What happened to those days? When did this become something that would get you arrested for attempting to make a “hoax bomb”? Oh wait, I’m sorry, I forgot, I was a white kid.

Yeah, at first I thought that it was a miracle that I had never been arrested for something like this when I was a student. Then I thought about it... His skin color, his religion, and his name should not determine the severity of the punishment he received. He should not have been punished at all for this. Real bombs don't beep.

[FrankJ]

While i don't deny that skin color, name,... played an issue. Rigid policies, zero tolerance, embedded resource officers (police) have led to lot of silliness in school discipline - for everybody.

On the other side of the coin. He has received a ground swell of support.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

While i don't deny that skin color, name,... played an issue. Rigid policies, zero tolerance, embedded resource officers (police) have led to lot of silliness in school discipline - for everybody.

On the other side of the coin. He has received a ground swell of support.

True indeed. Kids like that deserve support.

[Doug Frisk]

Originally Posted by ChuckDickerson

What I’m trying to figure out is how the alarm on the clock went off in his backpack during his 6th period English class. The clock appears to be the AC powered innards with a 9VDC plug for battery backup. If it was in his backpack how was it plugged into the wall?

I expect that it had a nine volt battery connected while it was in his backpack. I also expect EOD removed it to safe the device.

[runneals]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

Team 16 totally needs to send him a tee shirt!! Wear it with pride to the white house.

Disclaimer: I am totally unrelated to Team 16 other than being an admirer of their program. I understand they are discrete as to where they wear their "Bomb Squad" tee shirts.

Heh... Thanks for the idea Just sent the idea onto the coach of Bomb Squad

Also, I chatted a bit with FIRST HQ, and they are also reaching out, so it sounds like they at least will be joining FIRST Wouldn't it be cool if he could get on an FRC team with his friends who sound like they're taught by incompetent teachers?!?! Yet somehow they are named National AP District of the Year and “Top Digital District” for Use of Cutting-Edge Technology

[Carolyn_Grace]

This is an important discussion to have, and I'm really proud of our FIRST and Robotics community for having it.

The one point I disagree on is the bashing of Ahmed's teachers. I'm in my second year teaching, and it's ridiculous how difficult it is sometimes to actually teach my content when there's so many other things happening on a daily basis. Every teacher that I've come in contact with for the past two years of my career always has the best interests at heart for their students. Sometimes that manifests in drastically different ways.

I don't blame Ahmed's teachers. The teachers are part of a larger institute that needs to take responsibility, including administration and police. But I'm slow to point fingers at the English teacher. There's very few of us silly non-STEM English teachers in the world who even know what an Arduino even is.

So yes, let's educate. (I'm educating my co-workers regularly about STEM and Robotics), but please let's also do so in a way that doesn't bash the teachers, who have enough on their plate at the moment.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

This is an important discussion to have, and I'm really proud of our FIRST and Robotics community for having it.

The one point I disagree on is the bashing of Ahmed's teachers. I'm in my second year teaching, and it's ridiculous how difficult it is sometimes to actually teach my content when there's so many other things happening on a daily basis. Every teacher that I've come in contact with for the past two years of my career always has the best interests at heart for their students. Sometimes that manifests in drastically different ways.

I don't blame Ahmed's teachers. The teachers are part of a larger institute that needs to take responsibility, including administration and police. But I'm slow to point fingers at the English teacher. There's very few of us silly non-STEM English teachers in the world who even know what an Arduino even is.

So yes, let's educate. (I'm educating my co-workers regularly about STEM and Robotics), but please let's also do so in a way that doesn't bash the teachers, who have enough on their plate at the moment.

This is a really good point. As the pace of change for technology accelerates, it is up to us in the engineering tribe to educate those not in it about the wonders that are out there. My mom is a retired English/Language Arts/Social Studies teacher and I'm happy to say she is still learning new stuff, even today. She probably couldn't pick out an Arduino from a Raspberry Pi but she knows her way around an iPad and understands that microcontrollers are what make it all possible.

[Daisies]

I don't mean any harm, but you guys need to do more research on a story before making all these presumptions or suggesting such drastic measures. The issue, to me, isn't that he built a clock that looked like a stereotypical IED. (Which he most likely knew it did, and brought it to school anyways. But let's be honest, a lot of harmless electronic projects can easily look like IED's to an untrained eye), but that he didn't actually build the clock from scratch, let alone "invent" it like he claims. What he brought to school was, or at least appears to be, something built in a factory. This video demonstrates and explains this in detail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=232&v=CEmSwJTqpgY
Even if it was something he invented, which I don't believe it is, he doesn't deserve thousands of dollars worth of gifts and a free trip to the white house. There are plenty of other kids that have done so much more than him, and I wouldn't even say they deserve free stuff. It's a nice just but it's also not a fair gesture. I don't think anyone deserves special treatment like that unless they did something really impressive, like those kids who innovate in medical, technological, and other scientific fields in a way that can potentially help society as a whole. Kids like that deserve a lot of recognition but almost always get little-to-none, while this kid who just, at best, built a simple electronic clock has gotten massive amounts of media and political attention.
There's also the possible issue with his uncle, Aldean Mohamed [his Twitter] being CEO of a company named "twin towers transportation" [http://www.corporationwiki.com/p/2fj...on-corporation] which is obviously provocative, but that's no fault of Ahmed Mohamed. He isn't responsible for his family's actions. Even if he had (not saying he does have, just saying if he did) a terrible family, we shouldn't judge him for that. Just like we shouldn't consider him a hero just because of what happened to him, even though I do believe he was wronged at first. But our school system wrongs A LOT of people, and the teachers are probably required to call the police of they see something that looks similar to a bomb on a student, regardless of race or creed. Rewarding him may be with good intentions and is sentimental, but it's ultimately unfair and unreasonable.
There may have been racial profiling involved, but there's no proof of it. It's fallacious to just assume racial profiling is what happened in this situation, even if you personally think it's probable (Which I agree that is is a high possibility, there is a lot of Antisemitism in our country. But it's still wrong to assume that this is the case). Situations like this have happened many times before, so it's not like it's exclusive to Mr. Mohamed, or Muslims at all. (though it's stupid that they didn't evacuate the school, that should be standard protocol with a bomb threat. But that's how our school system typically is, dumb and constantly takes extreme measures against kids who usually didn't actually do anything wrong)

[orangemoore]

Originally Posted by Daisies

I don't mean any harm, but you guys need to do more research on a story before making all these presumptions or suggesting such drastic measures. The issue, to me, isn't that he built a clock that looked like a stereotypical IED. (Which he most likely knew it did, and brought it to school anyways. But let's be honest, a lot of harmless electronic projects can easily look like IED's to an untrained eye), but that he didn't actually build the clock from scratch, let alone "invent" it like he claims. What he brought to school was, or at least appears to be, something built in a factory. This video demonstrates and explains this in detail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=232&v=CEmSwJTqpgY
Even if it was something he invented, which I don't believe it is, he doesn't deserve thousands of dollars worth of gifts and a free trip to the white house. There are plenty of other kids that have done so much more than him, and I wouldn't even say they deserve free stuff. It's a nice just but it's also not a fair gesture. I don't think anyone deserves special treatment like that unless they did something really impressive, like those kids who innovate in medical, technological, and other scientific fields in a way that can potentially help society as a whole. Kids like that deserve a lot of recognition but almost always get little-to-none, while this kid who just, at best, built a simple electronic clock has gotten massive amounts of media and political attention.
There's also the possible issue with his uncle, Aldean Mohamed [his Twitter] being CEO of a company named "twin towers transportation" [http://www.corporationwiki.com/p/2fj...on-corporation] which is obviously provocative, but that's no fault of Ahmed Mohamed. He isn't responsible for his family's actions. Even if he had (not saying he does have, just saying if he did) a terrible family, we shouldn't judge him for that. Just like we shouldn't consider him a hero just because of what happened to him, even though I do believe he was wronged at first. But our school system wrongs A LOT of people, and the teachers are probably required to call the police of they see something that looks similar to a bomb on a student, regardless of race or creed. Rewarding him may be with good intentions and is sentimental, but it's ultimately unfair and unreasonable.
There may have been racial profiling involved, but there's no proof of it. It's fallacious to just assume racial profiling is what happened in this situation, even if you personally think it's probable (Which I agree that is is a high possibility, there is a lot of Antisemitism in our country. But it's still wrong to assume that this is the case). Situations like this have happened many times before, so it's not like it's exclusive to Mr. Mohamed, or Muslims at all. (though it's stupid that they didn't evacuate the school, that should be standard protocol with a bomb threat. But that's how our school system typically is, dumb and constantly takes extreme measures against kids who usually didn't actually do anything wrong)

He has never claimed that he invented what he made but he still built it. Most students don't do the kind of things that he did. I personally can say that I wish I did the things that he does but I just don't put the time in.

Maybe other people have done more to deserve the recognition he has gotten but the price he has paid is being arrested for something that he did not do. And that seems very likely that he was racially profiled for.

If someone really thought what he brought in was a bomb; why didn't they stop touching/handling it, evacuate the school, and call the bomb squad? Saying it is just stupid they didn't evacuate the school is an understatement. Based on the response of the school district and how they want to protect all of the students they serve, they failed that objective when the first idea that it was a bomb came up and they didn't get the students away from it.

If anyone had any common sense and believed it to really be a bomb the first thing to do to protect the "All students" would have been to evacuate the school. The story of the school and the police don't add up to someone truly believing that there was some type of bomb threat.

He really seemed to be racially profiled to me because when he insisted that it was a clock the police were still called. When the police interviewed him they kept asking what it was and he always had the same response: "It is a clock". Why did the police keep asking? If someone gives you one answer constantly to the same question you ask over and over again, isn't it a pointless question?

Also by the definition of a bomb that the school/police went by literally includes all electronic devices. So phones, calculators, clocks, watches, ipods, ipads, computers, etc.

You make a lot of statements counting them as fact when they truly are not. And as an anonymous account on this forum you really don't get much credit.