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Comment by daktanis | Hacker News Reader

Im from a very white, rural town. In 2005 I was a Junior and a kid got suspended for bringing a 3 foot section of 2x4 to school. He was white. We live in a zero tolerance time, Ahmed brought a bundle of electronics and a ticking clock. It wasn't a good idea. Should it have been handled better? Yes, of course. But we live in a shitty time where two yahoos can learn to make a bomb online and cause mass destruction (see Boston Marathon Bombing).

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> But we live in a shitty time where two yahoos can learn to make a bomb online and cause mass destruction

100 years ago you could read how to create explosives in an encyclopedia. A lot of people knew from hobbies and profession. Don't blame the Internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster

A kid can cut out the pages from a book and hide a circuitboard in a book. Should we ban books from schools? No. A kid can put a piece of benign electronics in a backpack and just leave it in a crowded area without telling anyone.should we ban backpacks from schools? No.

The answer to stupid overreaction isn't to say that benign educational activities are stupid; It is to stop overreaction.

Im sorry, was I approving the overreaction? No. Im saying I don't think its truly race motivated and that a High schooler should be knowledgable enough to know how it may appear. Maybe he could have left it with his shop teacher or gotten a note from the teacher. The teacher would have saved the kid some trouble since the teacher obviously thought it wouldn't be great if another teacher saw it.

Imagine if it was a bomb how the media would be damning the school for not acting.

Imagine? Shoes can be a bomb. Any backpack could contain a bomb. An electronic thing with lights and a battery is no more likely to be a bomb. This whole manufactured issue is simply Idiocracy at work.

Should we ban backpacks from schools? No.

Some schools have actually done that.

To be fair, banning backpacks might have other purposes beyond "security"; for example, carrying around a bunch of books on your back can contribute to spinal stress, cause or worsen scoliosis, etc.

When I was in middle school I found a note on the ground while walking to my next class with writings about how this person hated the school and wanted to blow it up. I was 12, I didnt think much of it and handed it off to a nosy friend who wanted to read it too. Well she turned it in and said I found it, I was interrogated (at the school to be fair) for an hour and half by the principle and a police office without once having called my parents. Zero tolerance man.

The answer to mass hysteria and public scares and paranoia is combating this atmosphere not embracing it or coming to terms with it.

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