Now that I think I may have a handle on what happened, I will just say this and post no more for a couple of weeks at least.  

If one of my physics/engineering students had brought this to school, I would have taken it to the principal, told him it was a DIY clock (I am assuming I would know the difference) that just looked scary and suggest that the dad come and pick it up and take it home.  But that's just me. And yes I had a 14 year old brilliant student once bring a pipe bomb to school because he thought it was cool and wanted to show me what he had built. It had no explosives inside, but suffice it to say I took a different course of action. Student information is confidential so I won't post the consequences.

Every situation is different, you make the best decision you can at the moment. Sometimes it is the right one, sometimes you might have handled it differently. Sometimes you totally screw up.  But today everyone can be an armchair consultant, and as a result can judge you based on what they read, hear, or worse  what they are told is the "true" motivation for the action taken. One is then found guilty or not, told by millions what you should have done, even your motives are "proven" and then you are sentenced in the court of public opinion. And not just by the local community, but by the world. All in less than 72 hours. This goes both ways.  Then it expands to a discussion of what ever socitial, security, racism etc. issue that people perceive it to be connected to.  It sometimes becomes a symbol. The people of power chime in. Battle lines are drawn.  Sometimes the facts of the incident are forgotten, or so quickly re-written to conform to whatever point someone is trying to make.  For example I have read it occurred on 9/11. Not true. But now it's out there.

Sometimes it's just a 14 year old that was proud of what he had done. Wanted to show it to an important adult in his or her life and didn't think any further than a 14 year old does and things spiraled out of control.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Some folks that read this will think I am siding with the police. Others with Obama etc. I am taking no sides with this. I wasn't there. I don't know this student. I didn't see his clock first hand nor did I speak with him.  Most of what I have said is just a comment on these situations in general, and sharing a bit of what my experience has been.  Fortunately, for me many of my school incidents happened before 9/11 and the age of instant news. But my first experience with the news media and schools happened in 1986. A bottle of liquid bromine was broken in the chem store room. Science department was immediately evacuated. Next the news trucks show up. So the hazmat team gets called. The the entire school is evacuated to a grassy field across the street. It's spring so kids allergies kick in, sneezing coughing red watery eyes start. The film crews start to film the kids.

5 PM news that night. "Toxic chemical spill at local high school forces evacuation. Many students may have been exposed, some taken to local hospitals" then they show the kids with allergies and a guy in a hazmat suit saying "bromine spill."  Then "bromine gas can cause death if exposed". Cut to kids coughing.  Total misrepresentation of what happened. Thus my jaundiced eye towards media reports. That's just the first of many. Shooting at at park 2 miles from the school. 5 PM live coverage, filmed in front of the school. Except no students were involved. My poor Mom called so many times to see if I was OK in those days it was pathetic.

Done. Forgi ve my long rant. No agenda.


Now on to adding some thicker rug liner to my HD800's. 

OK. I got it. Like a lot of the stuff that we go through at airports it may be bullshit, but if that if is the rules, regulations, procedures, enforced this that and the other, then I cannot blame the individuals. I acknowledge that they have to be able to tick the boxes.  And no, if something goes wrong, especially in the area of child safety, I wouldn't want to be the guy with an unticked box on the list.

Yes, indeed, the BBC often fails me. I've almost given up on its website as a source of international news, and completely given up on it as a sort-of-link to the country I used to live in. As to news about the country I do live in, it's coverage is regularly ignorant, condescending and crap.

Because of where I live, if you say "Islam," or "Muslim," to me, I do not immediately think of Arabs or the Middle East: I think of the people across the road, or the guy who repairs our AC machines. It may be a different kind of bias, but it does help me not to think of Islam as being automatically Arab. Don't they come in different colours where you live?

Also because of where I live, and because I had a lot to do with members of another South-Asian-origin community before I came here, I am very familiar with obsessive, high-pressure parents who give their children no alternative than to overachieve. Sure, I'd be wrong to say that that is exclusively S. Asian, but hey, I've known a few. I cannot see, though, even under that heading, that your theory holds water. It's too far fetched. And Too dangerous: what if the kid got shot?

No I am not completely nutz. so... what does a bomb look like, and what does it not look like?

I tell you one thing, though: If I ever thought that I was seeing a bomb, I wouldn't pause to take note of races/religions. Which is why the rest of the quote is nonsense.

What a bunch of utter crap. You asked for specific examples and now you got them you want to include Indonesians or some such to obfuscate the fact that there is a systemic abuse of children by a rather large segment of the Arabic and even African Muslim community (which is where the kid is actually from). Stick to the case at hand rather than trying to instigate race wars about how we need to improve our cultural understanding that muslim kids get to bring look alike bombs to school on 9/11. You're reaching and grasping at straws to fit some sort of narrative about the oppressed and discriminated minority. Get over it and look at the specific facts and keep to them.

What sort of confused and convoluted question revolves around what a bomb doesn't look like? How the freak is that relevant to ask about affirming the negative relative to an explosive device? Crazy...

Kid brought it on account of his engineering/science teacher.

Maybe someone can explain to me why they didn't just check with said teacher before calling in authorities.

Of course Anax is going to twist things to somehow blame radical islam for a teacher overreacting to a science project. Absolutely wacko. Should I post pictures of IDF using children human shields too? ughhh

Because when people get scared they freak out and act instinctively. I'd like to see how you'd react if you were standing next to the LA Marathon and happened to see what looked like a pressure cooker in an unattended bag. You going to spend 15 minutes walking around asking everyone if it's theirs?

Yeah, radical Islam has nothing to do with people overreacting to a look alike bomb carried into a school on 9/11. Nope, not a bit. You're soooo right. They're just hicks looking to pick on a darkie. Completely irrational response.

Go ahead and post them. That's what evidence is for right? Go ahead and manifest your hate for Jews if it makes your Persian blood feel better, but make sure you understand the difference. If Israelis do it, they are subject to prosecution for war crimes. If Palestinians do it they get a medal and a bonus check. Big difference.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/08/israeli-high-court-israeli-soldiers-used-human-shields-1200-times-2006-2011.html

Now that we have more details coming out, this seems to explain the total fuck up of events pretty clearly to me.

According to WFAA, Irving Police spokesman Officer James McLellan said they had Ahmed Mohamed arrested because the Texas Muslim teen would not clearly identify what exactly the device was and how it operated.

“We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only tell us that it was a clock,” McLellan said, who claimed Ahmed was being “passive aggressive” in his answers to their questions. “It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?”
The reason everyone was so upset is because the digital clock was contained within a briefcase. The digital clock’s components had been taken apart and rearranged, with the result appearing fairly suspicious.
“She was like, it looks like a bomb,” he said, according to the Dallas Morning News. “I told her, ‘It doesn’t look like a bomb to me.'”

It did not help when Mohamed plugged the briefcase into an electrical outlet in the middle of English class and it began to make a beeping noise.

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/2423721/ahmed-mohameds-bomb-clock-gets-muslim-teen-arrested-over-911-fears/#AmvijipCgQ1OgaSG.99

Police perceive answer as non responsive. Inarticulate socially stunted teen doesn't think to elaborate about a science project and to ask his engineering teacher to confirm. Project is seen by an English teacher disassembled with lots of wires, and he plugs it into a wall socket in class and it starts beeping. English teacher freaks out and kid can't articulate a defense to cops.

Seems like typical "situation normal all fucked up" American highschool to me.

Btw, anyone else feel it's time we started holding the media accountable for false reporting? The people need to come after these scumbag yellow journalists.