Dave, you keep dodging the question. Was there a room for a valid suspicion of a bomb or a hoax bomb?
Depends entirely upon the actual circumstances.
Given that I know as much about wan actually went down as anyone else (which is almost jack-all):
For an actual bomb, at first glance, sure, why not. At 2nd glance, of course not to any semi-intelligent educated adult, as there is clearly no explosive material.
As for a hoax bomb, the kid reportedly only ever said it was a clock, and he
deliberately showed it to his teachers and said it's clock, you don't do that with a hoax bomb. You do, you know, suspicious shit with it, sneak around, place it somewhere etc. You don't take it to class and go (guessing the conversation) "Excuse me Miss, what do you think of this clock I built?"
As I've said, it's an embarrassing dumb-arse over-reaction either way.
It should have ended with a good laugh at a misunderstanding at worst, not the kid being hauled away by the cops.
But go ahead and make a mountain out of that molehill, I'm done.
Nobody is saying that he should stop tinkering at home.
Want a bet. Seems every man and his dog is either dissing the kid for being a fraud, of saying he's in on some conspiracy with his father.
The fraud thing hit the fan the split second that blog post came out "exposing" it's not his own invention, it went viral.