Well I think this incident has grown here on this forum to be a Venus fly trap for political opinions that doesn't really explain why the situation evolved as it did. I would propose that it was just a case of personal ignorance and fear of the unknown.
I blame mostly the English teacher for starting a process where everyone involved, English teacher, principle, called authorities and all were trust into a 'cover our ass' situation. Who among those directly involved would have dared to take a stance and the liability of "I'm sure there is nothing sinister here, lets move on".
With our 24/7 news that cover every 'scary' committed crimes, it's no surprise to me that the school system deferred making a decision on their own and turned to local police to make a determination with then more cover their ass decisions and actions.
So to me it's not about Texas, Conservative politics, religious beliefs, racial discrimination, U.S. policies, States Rights, pro-choice/pro-life opinion, but rather one ignorant English teacher (that I wouldn't expect to look at a home made electronic device and understand what he/she was seeing) that set off a cover their ass, protect the children at all costs, that forced a response and decisions by the school and authorities.
So you are all free to continue with all the political clap-trap opinions, but to me it's just a situation of human fear and knowledge of past situations occurring at schools (Columbine anyone?) and how organizations feel they must respond to 'scary' situations. I'm actually surprised they didn't evacuate the school and call a bomb squad to destroy the device as it would be the only way to be sure and the safest path to take.