9th Grader Arrested in Houston for making ... a clock.

[BulletMagnet83]

http://hackaday.com/2015/09/16/why-you-should-build-a-clock-for-social-good-this-week/

Called it 

[Howardlong]

The school is avoiding comment by hiding behind some anonymity legalese, which seem bizarre considering the global press coverage. Their credibility is in shreds, the only people to do well out of it will be the lawyers, which is sad, because had they had the strength and quality of mind to express an apology and revoke suspension when they realised their mistake, it would have been a whole lot better. Now they've dug themselves so deep it's difficult to see how they are ever going to recover.

I am reminded of this sketch with Rowan Atkinson (Actor and Electrical Engineer, aka Mr Bean)

[Kjelt]

Here's a clock I build when I was about Ahmed's age, it's what hobbyists do:

Bring it to a large international airport in your country, get it out of your bag, start tinkering with it and watch how zero tolerance your country has become 
I am not saying that is good, but after events of the past years where multiple innocent civilians died this has become our reality. What can we do about it? What will we do about it?

[Chris C]

There may or may not be a actual picture of the clock here but looks okay to me.

Looks he removed an off-the-shelf clock from its original case, and partially remounted the pieces in an equipment case.

The one PCB, with the ribbon cable leading to the display, looks commercial.  And the other PCB, you can see it's the width of the original case (based on the width of the LED panel).  You can just make out a cluster of dome-style switches on it.  Finally, it's clearly AC powered, but has the 9VDC battery-backup typical of commercial clocks.

So he didn't really "build" a clock, not by my definition.  He merely put the internals on display.  Still, for a 14 year old, it shows a healthy inquisitiveness that can lead to greater things.

Though if I had encountered this device out of context, without knowing who created it and why, I'm afraid I can see how this could be considered HIGHLY suspect.  Because a terrorist typically isn't going to build a clock or timer from scratch.  They're just going to repurpose some consumer product, doesn't matter whether it counts up or down, it can still be triggered by the alarm.  And this is, in fact, a repurposed consumer product.  That it might be repurposed for education could be a distinction lost on a layman adult, not realizing that it would be ridiculous to use an oversized, AC powered product for a bomb.  And that it might be viewed as repurposed for destruction could be lost on a 14 year old.

Hopefully all involved parties learned some good lessons from this.  Are willing to admit mistakes made out of both prejudice and naivety, and apologize.  Then fully move on.

[SL4P]

What is really crazy about a story like this is that 'the clock' was probably a kid's kludge of wires and perf-board with a pre-made LED module - or similar... stuffed into the first case of the right size -- not important.
If it had been a small surface mounted 'final' build with no 'hanging wires' with a couple of AA batteries taped to the side... and looked 'manufactured' - the teachers would have ushered him in front pf assembly as a boy-genius, and ask questions, like can it count up/down... can you set it as a timer, etc.
No matter the clock was infinitely more capable of additional functionality / remote sync / GPS lock etc (the only hanging wire was probably a 433MHz antenna!
Most importantly, it didn't 'look' like  a bomb to the highly trained middle school teachers.

[Deathwish]

Dave, nice vid, you forgot to mention your recent debacle for possible terrorist activity at your local parts supplier blacklisting your name ....... and holding your parts.

[AndyC_772]

I am not saying that is good, but after events of the past years where multiple innocent civilians died this has become our reality. What can we do about it? What will we do about it?

I think Ahmed has already (unwittingly) taken a good first step here, by highlighting the issue and getting people to talk about it. Perhaps, if something good can come of this, it'll be the dawning realisation that parts of the world have become way too frightened of <insert foreign-sounding-threat here> and desperately need a reality check.

There's a few obvious next steps that cost next to nothing. The teaching staff and law enforcement officers involved get an immediate, permanent, and very public career change. Something like litter picking would be a good fit, but anything requiring no more than four working brain cells would be suitable.

Ahmed gets a PCB design package - he's clearly ready for one - and his bills for components and board fabrication are paid for by the US Govt until he graduates.

A work experience placement at NASA for a couple of weeks might go some way toward apologising to the kid too.

I see there's already a call for a 'build a clock' day, to promote STEM education in schools. Fantastic.

[Sionyn]

no better in the uk either in the airport a friend of mine was questioned by the police after a concerned lady though he was crashing planes beacuse he was using a ssh terminal updating his servers before boarding his flight.

i think lot of this ignorance steams from shows like csi, its no wonder they don't choose member for juries who watch these bullshit shows... people actual believe this

[EEVblog]

Though if I had encountered this device out of context, without knowing who created it and why, I'm afraid I can see how this could be considered HIGHLY suspect.move on.

But the point is there was context. This was his teacher and the school Principal who should know this kid.
One look at him and his NASA T-Shirt screams harmless nerd, without even knowing him.

[EEVblog]

Dave, nice vid, you forgot to mention your recent debacle for possible terrorist activity at your local parts supplier blacklisting your name ....... and holding your parts.

No need for that. What I did forgot was to show my clock I built at his age!

[Sionyn]

and who could forget the sign your son is becoming a computer hacker
dun dun dun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3&v=nkLtXfsPqVQ

[Galenbo]

It must be hard for that kid now.

All his efforts for designing stuff, building things, contributing to society and community are still left unnoticed.
All he has is massive attention for something that didn't take an effort at all...getting arrested.

He has a very tough decision to take at this age: Getting harnessed before the chariot of the victim/minority/discrimination industry and keep on getting a lot of empty attention, or make another project and get 4 "likes"

I hope he's surrounded by intelligent people who can put things in perspective.


 

[Wytnucls]

Taking something that looks like a lethal device to a school or an airport points to poor judgment, as in the present climate, it is sure to elicit some overreactions, regardless of race. His age is a mitigating factor and should be taken into account by the school and law enforcement.

In hindsight, there is no doubt that the whole episode could have been handled better by the teachers involved, without police intervention.

[fivefish]

If the teachers and school administrators truly thought the threat was credible, they should/would have evacuated the whole school. <sarcasm>Because THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!!  </sarcasm>  Look, other schools (at least in my county), they evacuate the premises and direct kids to the football field if they receive a phone call bomb threat... and that's just a phone call.... then they send an email blast to all the parents/text messages informing about the situation. 

The news article didn't mention anything about the school being evacuated. i.e. they took the threat seriously, or truly believed it was real.

The fact the police and school staffers here in TX didn't initiate an evacuation means either A) they didn't follow proper protocol and therefore put the rest of the kids at risk if it was truly a bomb, or B) they didnt really think the threat was real or credible.  If (B), then why the whole charade? I think they're more interested in parading him in handcuffs throughout the whole school. 

[VK3DRB]

One of my sons once did a high school assignment describing in detail how to build a bomb that would cause mass destruction. The school called me in for a meeting with the Principal where I was asked that I discipline my son because his knowledge is dangerous. Instead I went home and congratulated him on a well researched, well written and interesting assignment. He had done nothing wrong. When I was a kid I made gun powder, bolt bombs, missiles and other dangerous stuff. My son was a chip off the old block. My son went on to become one of the state's top high school students with an almost perfect VCE score, and was presented an award from the Premier of Victoria himself in Electronics Technology for the top student in the state in that subject. He did a double degree and was the top engineering student at RMIT, and won numerous awards, including a major one from Apple (which included a trip to the USA to attend an Apple conference where he met the master hacker Captain Crunch). My son is now working for a major European corporation developing fascinating new technology.

Kids like the 14 year old should be applauded and encouraged, but the school's do-gooders and the moronic police force kicked him in the guts. In the end they have made big fools of themselves, whilst "protecting fellow students" from Islamic jihadists. Ironically, Texas is harbouring a terrorist... George W. Bush, who has executed 152 people when he was governor of Texas, caused the plague we know know as ISIS, lied about WMD's and invaded another country without provocation, facilitated the Global Financial Crisis and supported the CIA's rendition and torture programs. And yet he lives as a free man.

Wayne LaPierre is far more dangerous than this 14 year old kid could ever be.

[SteveyG]

This explains why I've suddenly had a few hits on my LED clock YouTube video. Ridiculous response to this kids project 

[HighVoltage]

This explains why I've suddenly had a few hits on my LED clock YouTube video. Ridiculous response to this kids project 

Be careful, "they" might show up to arrest you as well.

It is getting more and more ridicules.
I was at an Airport in Germany yesterday and had a sample of an automotive cable with me.
It caused a long discussion, before I was allowed to take it on to the plane.
May be this is all just the beginning.

[AndyC_772]

Taking something that looks like a lethal device

It doesn't, though. It looks like a clock. A hand-made, perhaps even slightly amateurish one, but a clock nonetheless.

People in a position of power and authority have an absolute duty to be smart enough to realise this.

[Wytnucls]

I beg to differ. It is constructed specifically to represent what most people would imagine an explosive device would look like.

[dr.diesel]

Wayne LaPierre is far more dangerous.

 

Dangerous to liberal dictators with ulterior motives.

[ccs46]

Ahmed will be interviewed on ABC World News tonight!

[VK3DRB]

Most of the 9/11 Muslim terrorists were ENGINEERS. So this 14 year old kid could be guilty by association. After all, under the American justice system he must be guilty until proven innocent. The CIA could have sent him to a dark site and water-boarded him until he confessed he wanted to blow up the school and kill as many infidels as possible. Or sent him to Guantanamo Bay where the skinhead military jerks can give him sleep deprivation and let him hear "The Real Slim Shady" by Eminem at 110 dB, then beat the shit out of him for saying he was only building a clock, before having one of their prostitutes menstruate on him. Nothing like a bit of encouragement to get him to confess. The 14 year old could end it all by attending a US style military kangaroo court and getting him to sign a confession that he is a member of Al Qaeda and is guilty of terrorism offences. 

The last thing the 14 year old would hear before they put a hood over his head is, "Where you're going, boy, there ARE no clocks."

[continuo]

This explains why I've suddenly had a few hits on my LED clock YouTube video. Ridiculous response to this kids project 

Wow, that's a really nice big bomb 

Did you finish the case for it?

[tszaboo]

Though if I had encountered this device out of context, without knowing who created it and why, I'm afraid I can see how this could be considered HIGHLY suspect.move on.

But the point is there was context. This was his teacher and the school Principal who should know this kid.
One look at him and his NASA T-Shirt screams harmless nerd, without even knowing him.

No. There area lot of second generation immigrants living in europe, who start looking for their roots, and then they are radicalized and become terrorists (recently in France) or they travel willingly to middle east countries to fight in a war based on religion.
Police arrested a similar aged girl from the Netherlands who wanted to travel to Syria and join a terrorist organization. She was half way there. Teachers, friends were shocked. (She would be probably a sex slave there, the poor misguided girl).
http://www.thejournal.ie/dutch-girl-arrested-syria-is-1764687-Nov2014/
I'm with the police and the teachers on this. When some time passes and they prove all of them can live civilized amongst us, and not kill us because we dont believe in their deity, and I mean all of them, not 999 out of 1000, then maybe they will not get the treatment, prejudge that they have now.
I feel bad for this guy. I really do. It is not his fault that this happened. But here is a moral of the story for all of you:
You dont point at people who cried wolf, you dont ridicule them, you dont laugh at them.
Because the next time someone gets killed by a brainwashed teenager, and it happened because no-one suspected anything, or their suspicions were dismissed.

[Daniel_Reyes]

Though if I had encountered this device out of context, without knowing who created it and why, I'm afraid I can see how this could be considered HIGHLY suspect.move on.

But the point is there was context. This was his teacher and the school Principal who should know this kid.
One look at him and his NASA T-Shirt screams harmless nerd, without even knowing him.

No. There area lot of second generation immigrants living in europe, who start looking for their roots, and then they are radicalized and become terrorists (recently in France) or they travel willingly to middle east countries to fight in a war based on religion.
Police arrested a similar aged girl from the Netherlands who wanted to travel to Syria and join a terrorist organization. She was half way there. Teachers, friends were shocked. (She would be probably a sex slave there, the poor misguided girl).
http://www.thejournal.ie/dutch-girl-arrested-syria-is-1764687-Nov2014/
I'm with the police and the teachers on this. When some time passes and they prove all of them can live civilized amongst us, and not kill us because we dont believe in their deity, and I mean all of them, not 999 out of 1000, then maybe they will not get the treatment, prejudge that they have now.
I feel bad for this guy. I really do. It is not his fault that this happened. But here is a moral of the story for all of you:
You dont point at people who cried wolf, you dont ridicule them, you dont laugh at them.
Because the next time someone gets killed by a brainwashed teenager, and it happened because no-one suspected anything, or their suspicions were dismissed.

Your fear keeps you living without principles.  Sad.

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