I've never seen a bomb, and I hope I never do, but if I ever do, and I get to register anything before the final big flash in my life, I doubt very much that it will have a digital display, wires hanging out of it ...or be a round thing, with the word "bomb" on it and a fizzing fuse on the top. Unless I'm in a movie.

Worked as a prosecutor for several years; know a lot of cops; know how media misconstrues almost everything. My initial reaction to this was "why is the media freaking out? a clock display + exposed wires SHOULD arouse concern." Even if he had boards in a pencil case, separate from bundles of wires (also weird), the visual still impresses caution first.

Also, everyone remember the single power amp that was delivered to a courthouse? http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/mysterious-wooden-crate-ignites-bomb-scare/nDSP8/
I mention that because, even though there was some excitement about "idiot cops overreacting" on head-fi at the time (http://www.head-fi.org/t/512380/theres-my-supra), the media did not flip out, and the president, lord facebook, et al. did not offer to meet the headphone enthusiast (or his kid).

Some of my thoughts on the matter...

- I really wish people would settle the fuck down until all the details are made clear. Of course the media and news outlets are going to blow this up as best as possible without having everything straight. And they know a lot of Americans are going to lose their shit over it, one way or another. They know it doesn't matter if they're missing context and details, and I'm not even sure the angry Americans care either. And by the time everything is put into context and fleshed out, everyone will have moved on to some other issue to get angry, happy, or obsessed over.

- I agree with the "better safe than sorry approach." Sure, probably better if the kid had thought, "You know...this could be mistaken for a bomb," but he's 14. I sure know my brain wasn't fully functioning at that age. Perhaps he was too wrapped up in excitement over what he created and got on a one-track thought process based on that. I can't say I fault him too much for wanting to show it off to teachers and classmates (assuming this is the case), nor can I fault teachers and the police for being concerned about it possibly being a bomb. I was in high school less than a decade ago, and we did NOT fuck around with potential or perceived threats. Simple as that. My peers then probably would have been relatively thoughtless about how the clock would be perceived by others.

- If I were that kid, I probably would have wanted this all to go by rather quietly and without much fuss. None of this crazy media attention. Just get it behind me and be done with it.

- I don't really know police protocol, so this is a serious question...did they really have to arrest the kid, get his fingerprints, and go through all that mess? Could they not have inspected the device, safely away from the school, and determined it was just a false alarm? Maybe have the school administrators just give him a stern talking to and rationally explain their course of action and concern? Part of me WANTS to think the police took it too far and beyond a good "better safe than sorry approach," to the point where it can be perceived as racial or religious targeting, but, again, I'm not a police expert. Genuinely curious on this one, if anyone can fill me in. Maybe this is just the normal protocol?

- Reiterating that I agree this is a serious matter and should be followed with a "better safe than sorry approach," if the police and teachers did act more strongly against this kid than they would have if he were white and a known Christian, then that's unfortunate to say the least (granted, I know we live in a fucked up world right now). If they would have applied the same approach to ANY student, which I'd hope for, then that would be fair. More or less a hypothetical situation, though, that we can never really have the answer for in this exact scenario (because, you know, it didn't happen to be a white, Christian kid, nor do I expect any of them to be bringing homemade clocks to that school anytime soon after this to find out how they get treated).

- I did see a couple articles popping up about several other cases of students that brought clocks to schools without repercussion. Of course, these articles are meant to elicit a response from the same people going apeshit over this situation and were likely written by these same types of individuals. Once again, those examples are lacking in context and details. I also don't know if they had example pictures of these other scenarios. Look, I get it...we have some societal issues in terms of racial and religious perception, mistreated groups, etc., but these context and details are important in every scenario so that we're not just blindly putting a blanket over everything.

Guys, the kid is 14.  Remember when you were 14?  Were you smart enough to predict the actions of adults to something other then black and white situations?  For sure he thought the project was pretty cool (because it is!) and just wanted to show it to some people.

Now based on the photo I can see how if you were paranoid you might misconstrue the contents or find them threatening and you might want to take action.

Except that the school didn't evacuate or do any sort of thing other then harass the shit out of the kid.  They had a guy on staff (engineering teacher) who could identify the thing as a clock and had even seen it earlier in the day yet nobody brought him in.  Once it was identified as a clock they STILL hauled the kid off in cuffs AND they maintained his suspension later.  From where I am sitting (and judging from the comments in the local/national news my countrymen agree) they are complete idiots and reflect extremely poorly on both Texas and America.

Bombs need explosives and triggers to work. Too many movies.....

The only thing positive to come out of this is that Ahmed just got his ticket punched to a first rate career and some proper education and he seems like the kind of kid who will make something of it.  Best of luck to him.