The teacher he showed the clock to in the morning is kicking himself for not telling the kid to leave it with him and pick it up at the end of the day. He knew what the administration/other teachers would think if they saw it.
What if it was a bomb. Or the timer for a bomb that was already planted? And the news today was "14 year old brings bomb to school, teachers save day"?
The situation was not handled well at all by any of the adults involved. But schools are a scary place. You've got a building with a generation of other people's children in it. And some times people do bad things in those buildings.
Someone should have looked at that clock and said "yeah, this is a clock. No big deal. It doesn't even look like a real bomb, but if it kind of looks like a TV Bomb, maybe don't bring it to school next time." and then everyone goes on their merry way.
Unfortunately, adult ego got involved.
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