‘Clock kid’ Ahmed Mohamed and his family will move to Qatar
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
I was completely outraged when I first heard this story, but then I read some of the legitimate criticism that the article glosses over. Basically it looks like he didn't build a clock, but repackaged an existing clock into a pencil box and had it go off during class. Here's the take from someone who went the full length with looking up the parts:
http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engin...
Whether or not he built the clock, the important thing is that he didn't build a bomb and was arrested by police officers who (then and now) fully admitted that he had committed no crime whatsoever.
He was arrested on suspicion of perpetrating a bomb hoax. There may be a legitimate purpose for putting an existing clock inside a box where it can't be seen, and having it go off during class. But I'm less outraged if it turns out that law enforcement's only failure was missing out on that legitimate purpose when called to make a judgment on the spot.
The way he was treated by officers was absolutely shitty, but it wasn't any different than how officers treat people all day, every day, at schools all across America.
If Ahmed Mohamed's case leads to a change in this area, I think a lot is won.
However, it's not insane to think he was trying to cause an incident. The hypothesis goes: he wanted to get a teacher to believe he had a bomb so that he could claim religious profiling and racism. If that is what happened, that technically is a crime because the bomb was a hoax bomb.
Why would someone think he was trying to trick a teacher into thinking it was a bomb. It's a weird thing to bring to school. It's not like he actually make a clock on his own. Clocks are not super impressive, but it's a good beginner amateur electronics project. But he didn't even do that. His comments in the media don't really show any understanding of electronics.
Why was he so proud of pulling apart an off the shelf alarm clock and nailing it into a pencil case? He brought it out in each class of the day for no reason. He set it to go off in class for some reason.
And then when he was questioned about it, he was reportedly very tight lipped. He could have been nervous being in trouble. Or he could have been trying to create a scandal.
Mark Cuban said when he called the kid that someone else was feeding him answers. His sister got in trouble in a bomb scare situation at the same school district.
And then the family goes on a media tour meeting with mass murdering Islamic leaders--al-Bashir. And suddenly the family is moving to Qatar.
His Father was also involved in a high profile media circus regarding a Koran burning.
It's not clear that it was a purposeful stunt. But I don't think it requires conspiracy level thinking to believe it was.
And it changes nothing. To claim that he was trying to make it look like a bomb for attention is absurd.
Whether it's true or false is another issue (I don't claim to know his motivations) but absurd?
What is more absurd: that a teenager violated a school rule to get attention, or that a whole bunch of school administrators and police officers couldn't tell an alarm clock apart from a bomb?
This is a case of parents using their child as a publicity stunt (pessimistic theory).
That may make unwarranted assumptions about competence of the particular officials involved. Though, I'd say that if they thought it was a bomb, then their reaction was just as bad as if they didn't, for a different set of reasons.
There are only two scenarios here that are tenable. Either he built a real bomb and brought it to school or he didn't build a real bomb.
If he didn't build a real bomb then the question becomes whether or not he attempted to scare people with a hoax bomb.
Unquestionably he didn't build a real bomb. Moreover, he didn't attempt to scare anyone with a fake bomb either. He brought a clock to school. He insisted to everyone that it was a clock. And he tried to avoid showing it to people.
That is not a hoax bomb in any sense of the word. If you don't have a hoax bomb and you don't have a real bomb then what do you have? Panic, and bigotry. Nothing more.
Zero-tolerance policies are their own can of worms, but neither such policies nor any possible explanation of their enforcement explains the characterizations made after the fact by both school and law enforcement officials regarding the supposed "hoax bomb".
http://pol.tasb.org/Policy/Download/367?filename=FOD(LEGAL)....
These are the relevant documents. They are short enough to read them in less than 5 minutes. Can you tell me what the legally-mandated punishment is for bringing a non-weapon that resembles a weapon onto school grounds is?
It's easy to bikeshed about "characterizations", but there are legally no other ways the school district could have reacted on the day they were making decisions.
Can you explain the relevance since -- except in the sense that every digital clock in existence resembles a fictional weapon through the Hollywood tendency to depict bombs as digital clock displays -- the actual device in question does not in any meaningful sense resemble a weapon.
Further, you answer your own question.
Remember that chicken fingers qualify as weapons under these policies.
Can we at least admit that movies have approximately zero relevance to reality?
In the same way that a person dressed in the black garb worn by stagehands, by theatrical convention, passes as invisible. The appearance of bombs in movies is an artistic convention designed to provide dramatic tension.
> Because while I agree the whole thing was handled poorly, it's not completely implausible to think that was a bomb.
The school action would be even more ludicrously inappropriate if they did think it was a bomb.
Obviously any suggestion of intent still doesn't excuse the way the police reportedly handled things, or make Dawkins' attitude any less ridiculous.
Even if Ahmed was being a delinquent, I can in no way understand how anyone can think this is true. Unless the father encouraged his son to take a bomb lookalike to school, how the hell could he, a 14 year old boy, have foreseen the act as attracting as much attention as it has? How could anyone?
That's an art form as well.
The White House invitation was a direct counter to the negative overreaction of local officials, and a means of sending a message to other tinkerers -- and other local officials -- that the kind of reaction that occurred was not acceptable.
But nice try.
Fact 1: Ahmed claimed to have "invented" this clock in a video. He did not. It is proven without a doubt to be a radio shack clock's guts stuffed in a case.
Fact 2: The clock was powered via AC, meaning no beeping (one thing all accounts report on) unless it was plugged in. Which it did. Who plugs in an alarm clock in English class?
Fact 3: His engineering teacher, the guy he supposedly brought it in to show, told him to leave it with him / not show it to other teachers. He did otherwise.
Fact 4: There is no legitimate evidence that this incident was based on race. Plenty of white kids getting kicked out of school for toy guns.
Fact 5: His dad is a known political agitator, most famously for a koran-burning incident in Florida a while back.
Taken alone, any one of these things don't really mean much. Added up, there aren't many scenarios that look good for him.
I really don't see why this is so outlandish to consider - it takes knowledge that school admins are generally idiots, combined with a misguided desire to either highlight a legitimate problem (said idiocy or islamophobia, take your pick), or plain old fashioned fame seeking.
Not exactly rare mindsets.
So what? That's irrelevant to the reason people are interested in this case. (Nobody cares what exactly he built, people care that he was arrested despite it being completely harmless.)
> Fact 2: The clock was powered via AC, meaning no beeping (one thing all accounts report on) unless it was plugged in. Which it did. Who plugs in an alarm clock in English class?
There's a 9-volt battery cable clearly visible in every photo of the clock.
> Fact 3: His engineering teacher, the guy he supposedly brought it in to show, told him to leave it with him / not show it to other teachers. He did otherwise.
He earlier set the alarm, then forgot that it was set.
> Fact 4: There is no legitimate evidence that this incident was based on race. Plenty of white kids getting kicked out of school for toy guns.
I'll grant you that one, but regardless of the kid's race the reaction of the school staff and police was utterly unacceptable. That is the important thing about this story.
> Fact 5: His dad is a known political agitator, most famously for a koran-burning incident in Florida a while back.
So what?
> Taken alone, any one of these things don't really mean much. Added up, there aren't many scenarios that look good for him.
No, this is at best irrelevant stuff ("he didn't really build a clock!") and at worst conspiracy theory ("his dad is a political agitator!") stuff.
I had no clue there were so many conspiracy theories in play around this simple story so soon after it broke, nor that so many people on HackerNews would be conspiracy theorists, or I probably wouldn't have posted in this thread at all.
Because seriously, this is ridiculous.
And as to lying about it being an invention: "Goes to character, your honor"
The 9V battery is responsible for maintaining settings in case of a power outage - I've got a clock similar to (but much newer than) that one on my nightstand - it does not power the device on its own.
He disregarded his eng. teacher's instructions.
If the "important thing" is that the police/teachers overreacted (which isn't in question.. zero tolerance is dumb), then why is the media, the goddamn president, and half of this thread trying to make it a race/islamophobia issue?
Many/most plug-in digital alarm clocks use a 9-volt battery to keep time in the event of a power failure, but the battery can't light the display. Some clocks will still sound their scheduled alarm if the battery is connected but AC power is not.
The volatility of this thread is pretty nuts, with posts rapidly alternating between gray and black with every reload, so this will be my only post. I just wanted to point out a common commercial alarm clock design element.
Which he did. He invented his particular clock arrangement. Not clocks in general... he's like... 3000 years too late on that front. Yes, it wasn't a complex project... but he's 17, who cares. Has no relevance to the subsequent school or police action.
> Fact 2: [...] Who plugs in an alarm clock in English class?
Teenagers, ones showing off their stuff to friends in particular. Has no relevance to the subsequent school or police action.
> Fact 3: [...] He did otherwise.
Because teenagers always listen to teachers, right? Worst case - confiscate it until the end of the day, maybe a detention. Has no relevance to the subsequent school or police action.
> Fact 4: There is no legitimate evidence that this incident was based on race. Plenty of white kids getting kicked out of school for toy guns.
Well... the police statements at the time were certainly racially ill-advised, but I'll give you this one under extreme charity. If you don't think that being brown skinned and named Ahmed Mohamed had anything to do with the over-reaction then I have a bridge to sell you. This is pretty obvious from you "legitimate evidence" dog whistle... as there's plenty of circumstantial and social evidence, but I doubt you'd call that "legitimate".
So far you're 1 for 4 here, not doing well.
> Fact 5: His dad is a known political agitator
Literally has nothing to do with Ahmed. So.. again has no relevance to the subsequent school or police action.
For being "against me" the facts you provide are pretty junk.
In which case you should share it with everyone else. I'm flat out saying there isn't any, other than a meme and confirmation bias.
I conclude that this idea exists purely as a media-created fantasy. "Racism exists, therefore that's what happened in this case.".
You're being treated like 911 Truth people. Rightfully ignored. Just because you're too dumb to work it out you're claiming victory.
> Ahmed wasn’t accused of making a bomb – he was accused of making a look-alike, a hoax. And be honest with yourself, a big red digital display with a bunch of loose wires in a brief-case looking box is awful like a Hollywood-style representation of a bomb. Everyone jumped to play the race and religion cards and try and paint the teachers and police as idiots and bigots, but in my mind, they were probably acting responsibly and erring on the side of caution to protect the rest of their students, just in case. “This wouldn’t have happened if Ahmed were white,” they say. We’re supposed to be sensitive to school violence, but apparently religious and racial sensitivity trumps that. At least we have another clue about how the sensitivity and moral outrage pecking order lies.
What happened here is really clear, and it has nothing to do with this kid being named "Ahmed." He got in trouble because he made a look-alike bomb. Nobody thought it was a real bomb, but that's besides the point. Plenty of white kids get suspended from school for bringing in toy guns that are clearly, without debate, toys. Maybe "zero tolerance" for weapon look-alikes is a stupid policy, but it's a different sort of stupid policy than what people are attacking in this case.
[1] http://www.irvingisd.net/cms/lib010/TX01917973/Centricity/Do...
[2] http://pol.tasb.org/Policy/Download/367?filename=FOD(LEGAL)....
Does anyone think that the American media is some unbiased, objective actor that brings stories to the national attention on nothing more than journalistic merit?
Because if you do, you're either stoned or stupid. Remember that this happened in the middle of a news cycle about Donald Trump and other Republicans being islamophobic.
I'm willing to think that the kid and his father aren't deliberately gaming the media machine, but obviously nobody above that level is acting out of anything but self-interest.
It's likewise reasonable to err on the side of caution when it comes to bomb threats, but the story didn't end there.
I think that's really stupid and that people are too sensitive about school shootings, but that's an entirely different argument.
People can be wrong that:
a) The school should have instantly made Ahmed a saint on seeing his device
while still being correct that:
b) This never should have escalated to arrest.
Both a) and b) speak to the question of whether the school reacted poorly.
The question is: what social forces do we blame in this case? Paranoid gun hating liberals? Or bigoted Muslim-hating conservatives? The media cast blame solidly on the latter group. But I think the facts better support blaming the former group.
Certainly the zero-tolerance policy of this and other districts cannot be effective, and certainly they aren't preventing any school shootings -- zero tolerance policies reached their apex in the years after columbine, but there are still shootings on a regular basis. So a liberal that pushes a zero-tolerance policy is certainly not doing it from the rational, evidence-based center of their kind soul.
This kid stuck a Radio Shack clock in a pencil case, and deliberately disrupted a class with it after he was asked to put it away -- he plugged it into the wall and left it beeping until he was kicked out of class and arrested for having a hoax bomb.
This whole episode was engineered by a politically active family, who is now running off to Qatar with all the free publicity and stuff gullible Americans gave them.
Al Jazeera is based in Qatar. Watch for the dad to appear on that network as a frequent commentator on anti-Islamic prejudice in America -- this was probably arranged weeks ago, possibly even before the hoax bomb incident.
Care to record this prediction on predictionbook.com or better yet, a betting site?
Edit: Because it's interesting, and I think something like this deserves to be aggregated and quantified.
And when I was 14, I was building real digital clocks out of 7400-series TTL chips. And so were many other nerdy kids back in 1976.
It was already national news getting heavy coverage at the time. So, letting local news be local wasn't relevant to this case at that point.
One of the biggest allies to US doing that? Can you not talk about things you know nothing about please?
The more I read into the story the more it seemed like the kid wasn't as innocent as he appeared to be when the story broke out...
I'm trying to imagine how this would happen and I'm failing. Do you have some sources to back this story up?
Cite? That's contrary to all the reports I've seen.
Even if he did plug it in in the classroom instead of simply forgetting that the alarm was set, it still doesn't justify the actions of the school employees or police.
This is the second time in this comments section someone has posted a conspiracy-esque "it didn't happen the way the press said!" and the second time that the conspiracy theory has completely missed the point of the incident.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=801_1443042484
Teachers are required by law to report potential threats to the administration and law enforcement. The police are required by law to investigate potential threats reported in schools. Ahmed was apparently uncooperative with the police, leading to further confusion and suspicion.
This was deliberate.
Great for him and his family. I hope that he finds someone who kindles his curiosity and turns it into a force for human progress in the future.
For those of us who remain in the United States: I think it's a sad state of affairs when "embracing opportunities" that result from horrendous discrimination in Texas means associating with a country best known for one of the worst genocides in recent memory (yes I know that the situation has changed in the last decade, but most people probably dont) and moving to a country widely known for effectively enslaving thousands for the sake of a sports tournament.
[Edit] horrendous smartphone copy paste
Yeah I'm sure the only option was to move to Oman. Come on, this is one of many opportunities offered and they decided to go to Oman. You're aware this kid just got his picture with al-Bashir - a man facing ICC charges for genocide in Darfur. I hope this kid's family has his best interests at heart.
My comment was rather flippant because in reality he can have a much better life in poorer parts of the world where he is in the overwhelming majority (and educated) instead of in a nation where he is overwhelmingly a minority. Regardless, going from the United States, a country built on the idea of a cultural melting pot, to Qatar or Sudan makes me very sad.
I'm pointing out that it doesn't seem very likely that they have a "fuck the west" attitude if they're still cool with meeting the President of the United States and visiting the White house.
>He visited the Google Science Fair, met with Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir, posed with the queen of Jordan at a United Nations Summit, appeared on the “Doctor Oz” show and last night, made it to the White House.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_al-Bashir
In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting president to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur.
In October 2005, al-Bashir's government negotiated an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War, leading to a referendum in the South, resulting in the separation of the south into the separate country of South Sudan. In the Darfur region, he oversaw the War in Darfur that has resulted in death tolls that are about 10,000 according to the Sudanese Government, but most sources suggest between 200,000 and 400,000.
In 3-4 years when he applies to college, unless the administrators explicitly look his name up, I doubt they would care.
The comments on that article are abhorrent. Even if it was pre-planned or not they definitely exposed the real problem we have in America. Not terrorists, but ourselves.
> This kid stuck a Radio Shack clock in a pencil case, and deliberately disrupted a class with it after he was asked to put it away -- he plugged it into the wall and left it beeping until he was kick out of class and arrested for having a hoax bomb.
> The only thing the clock this kid made is telling is that we're still in a time where racism and xenophobia is rampant still in America.
Sure ,but is it about racism ? or is this about the media making stuff up ?
Was he arrested because he was "brown" ? or because he behaved like a moron in class ? I don't have the answers, but let's choose our champions carefully here.
The media often make up their own stories just for the sake of milking them ad nauseam. It wouldn't be the first time.
This is a pretty bad insult to the USA, no way around that. Very ungrateful.
While everyone who brought up an ounce of critical thought was instantly dismissed as a "nazi" by the Good Guys™
And you wonder why people are growing increasingly right wing. Stop appeasing Islamists while throwing people like Nawaz and Khan under the buss
So yes, over-reacting is exactly what they did.
Ooookay.
Which isn't to say It's unique to America, only from my experience a lot of Americans think their country has moved on from those days when in actual fact, racism is alive and kicking.
The fact that you had news reporters and even Dawkins going after him was embarrassing and sad.
When I was 14 I hung out with (Caucasian) kids that lit things on fire in the park.
You can legislate a sane school/legal environment that removes the arbitrary and capricious power from possible bigots, overreactors, and other adult bullies.
Actually, most of the early response from public critics -- and most of the major-actor outreach to counter the official sanction directed at the student -- seemed to focus largely on the lack of sensibility of the administration and it being a failure of authoritarianism stifling harmless youthful experimentation. There was some speculation about the official reaction potentially having racist motivation, but the issue becoming principally about racial and/or religious bigotry really kind of took off as defenders of the actions by the school (or those just wanting to bash Obama because politics) started arguing that the student must have been guilty of doing something wrong, even if it wasn't actually building a bomb, because of his families background.
According to the district documents, the policies for a "look-alike weapon" are the same as those for a weapon -- see:
http://www.irvingisd.net/cms/lib010/TX01917973/Centricity/Do...
http://pol.tasb.org/Policy/Download/367?filename=FOD(LEGAL)....
Zero-tolerance policies do disproportionally damage students of color (like many policies in most countries...) but they're perfectly capable of damaging white students as well, and it's almost certainly false to say that if a nerdy, technophillic white kid brought a strange device to a Texas school, he wouldn't be arrested for possessing a "look-alike" bomb.
1. Something like this: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/orange-plastic-water-pistol-i...
What you have right now is the buzzfidization of the internet discourse - identity politics is easy traffic and money, so everyone is doing it.
AFAIK, all Dawkins said was that he didn't build a clock. Which he didn't, he took a circa 1980s Radio Shack clock out of its case and mounted it in a pencil box.
Apparently trivially verifiable facts are discriminatory now?
This whole thing stinks. I've seen nothing in either the police reports, the words of the involved people, or any hard, objective facts that indicate that this is a matter of anything other than garden variety school administrative stupidity.
It's a valid design/art form.
I would absolutely say that Dawkins was in fact "going after him" and being an asshole, even if he probably didn't fully understand why (but that makes the whole situation even sadder, that a scientist so visible to the public would be clueless about how to engage kids about science and engineering).
Don't forget that Dawkins said that Islamophobia is a 'non-word'[0].
Dawkins was being an asshole, and he definitely knew why. Ignoring Ahmed Mohamed's religion and race and pretending like it's not relevant doesn't change the fact that this entire incident is inextricably linked to the fact that he is Muslim and not white.
[0] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/richard-dawkins-def...
Based on what proof?
There are various forms of malice and incompetence that can explain the official acts at the basis of the incident, so while there is certainly plenty of reason to think that might be a significant factor, I think its far from clear that it is.
The responses to the incident from various circles certainly provide plenty of evidence of both racism and Islamophobia, but I don't think its fair to say that it is unambiguously the case that the whole incident boils down to that (though I don't think its particularly unlikely.)
Kids get suspended for less in schools, now -- racism or not. It's easier (and more likely) to explain these outcomes through hardened, zero-tolerance policies.
>When I was 14 I hung out with (Caucasian) kids that lit things on fire in the park.
And...I'm assuming you didn't get caught because you used discretion and weren't doing things in a controlled setting (e.g. classroom) or putting others at risk.
IME, zero-tolerance policies are highly-selectively enforced; they are quite convenient for administrators who want to act arbitrarily, because lack of action is less likely to be challenged if it doesn't lead to someone else getting injured, but any time action is taken (however flimsy the justification) the nest of zero-tolerance policies for (for drugs, including anything that could loosely be interpreted as associated with drug paraphernalia or drug culture; for weapons and violence, including anything that could loosely be interpreted as being suggestive of, related to, a simulation of, etc., a weapon or violent act; etc.) provide a convenient excuse for any response disproportionate to the substance of the act.
Zero-tolerance policies aren't an alternative explanation to administrators acting arbitrarily including based on racial, religious, or other prejudiced animus, they are an enabling mechanism for that arbitrary action.
Doesn't send a positive message to US kids either, does it?