Muslim Hysteria Reaches New Low in Texas

[Big Guy]

How do you folks feel that the situation should have been handled if your child was in attendance at that school during this incident?

[Wilber]

How do you folks feel that the situation should have been handled if your child was in attendance at that school during this incident?

You have to ask? If they honestly thought it might be a bomb, evacuate the area as quickly as possible, call 911, and let the pros deal with it. Otherwise, is hauling kids off in cuffs part of school discipline these days? Can't they handle a simple misunderstanding in house.

[Canada_First]

You have to ask? If they honestly thought it might be a bomb, evacuate the area as quickly as possible, call 911, and let the pros deal with it. Otherwise, is hauling kids off in cuffs part of school discipline these days? Can't they handle a simple misunderstanding in house.

So had they done it your way you'd have no problem with the school then?

[Wilber]

So had they done it your way you'd have no problem with the school then?

It's not my way, it's the only way. You could analyze the rest later but at least they would have taken the appropriate actions to keep the kids safe if they felt it might really be a bomb. I would give them credit for that.

[Peter F]

Here's how I imagine things should have happened:

Teacher: What is that beeping sound coming from your backpack?

Student: oh, well, its just an alarm...(opens pack and removes beeping object) ... its an alarm clock, but I forgot to turn it off and

(Teacher interrupts)

Teacher: OMG is that a bomb?

Student: no! no its an alarm clock that I...

Teacher: Children ! leave here immediately. ... No no! Leave your stuff! Leave your packs! Everyone out! Ahmed! You stay with me young man!

etc etc.

OR

Student: oh, well, its just an alarm...(opens pack and removes beeping object)... its an alarm clock, but I forgot to turn it off and I showed it to Ms.Smit

but she said don't let anyone else see it so I...

Teacher: Its an alarm clock?

Student: yes! I made it! Last night. I had all this IC and I thought...

Teacher: well turn it off.

[Bonam]

I agree.

If they had really responded to it as if it was a real bomb threat, that would be one thing. Despite all the humor about how people should be able to tell it's obviously not a bomb since it's a clock, that's totally false. You can make a bomb look like almost anything, and you only need a relatively small amount of actual explosive chemical, which could have been hidden anywhere in the little box he had. And, the vast vast majority of people would have no idea, looking at some electronic components hooked up together, what their purpose is. Frankly any kid's lunchbox could contain a bomb, if they wanted to bring it in and keep it hidden.

But the reality is they didn't treat it like a real bomb threat. They treated the kid as if he'd brought in something dangerous, but did not treat the situation as a dangerous one. Can't have it both ways.

I would say the choices of the teacher and principal show a high level of paranoia mixed with a high level of inability to react appropriately to the threat they thought they faced.

As for racism? Well... the fact that the kid was Muslim probably had something to do with the thought that the device was a bomb entering a teacher's mind in the first place. But, once that thought entered the teacher's mind, they couldn't really ignore it. Once you think you there's a chance that you have a threat like that to deal with, you have to do something about it (though, as I said above, the response was clearly not appropriate to an actual bomb threat). So the question of racism comes down to whether or not it is racist that, when a Muslim is holding an unidentified electronic device, that the thought that it might be a bomb would come more readily to someone's mind than if a non-Muslim was holding the same device. And the reality is that given what we see in the media on an almost daily basis, given that almost all acts that we view as terrorist being committed by Muslims, etc... a person can't really be blamed for having that influence their thinking and their reaction. Is it unfair to individual Muslims who mean no harm? Yes, absolutely. But it would also be unfair to expect people to ignore the thought that something might be a bomb and thus ignore a potential risk to their own physical safety, just to avoid being unfair to a Muslim.

Perceived threats to one's physical safety quickly override any other priorities one might have like being non-discriminatory, politically-correct, etc and the state of the world today makes it inevitable that when a Muslim kid in America is holding a homemade electronic device, there's a a greater chance that others will be threatened by it than if it was a non-Muslim kid.

[cybercoma]

You have to ask? If they honestly thought it might be a bomb, evacuate the area as quickly as possible, call 911, and let the pros deal with it. Otherwise, is hauling kids off in cuffs part of school discipline these days? Can't they handle a simple misunderstanding in house.

"You can't bring clocks to school. Somebody might think it's a bomb."

"But why would someone think my clock is a bomb?"

"Well, because you're a Muslim and when white people look at you they see a terrorist."

Edited September 19, 2015 by cybercoma

[cybercoma]

Perceived threats to one's physical safety quickly override any other priorities one might have

Except it's pretty clear nobody felt threatened, given the way they handled the situation.

[Bonam]

Except it's pretty clear nobody felt threatened, given the way they handled the situation.

Possibly, or possibly they were just incompetent at dealing with the threat they thought they faced, which I think is more likely. Remember Hanlon's Razor: "never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity".

[cybercoma]

Oh, I'm attributing it to stupidity, not malice.

[Wilber]

Possibly, or possibly they were just incompetent at dealing with the threat they thought they faced, which I think is more likely. Remember Hanlon's Razor: "never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity".

Well, either they have no plan for bomb threat or they completely ignored the one they do have. Either way, gigantic fail.

[Shady]

Omg, Bill Maher was amazing tonight. Best line in a long long time.

"There was a big story this week about a 14 year old kid, who built a clock. He's a science kid, and that's great. And the people at the school thought that it might be a bomb. Perhaps because it looks exactly like a fucking bomb."

LOL! He's been on a roll lately!

[cybercoma]

On a roll sounding like a complete imbecile.

[Shady]

No, just not politically correct, and not afraid to speak the truth.

[cybercoma]

The thing looked absolutely nothing like a bomb. We're 10 pages in and that's been covered completely here. That Bill Maher thought it did speaks to his own painfully ignorant agenda.

[Bob Macadoo]

Omg, Bill Maher was amazing tonight. Best line in a long long time.

"There was a big story this week about a 14 year old kid, who built a clock. He's a science kid, and that's great. And the people at the school thought that it might be a bomb. Perhaps because it looks exactly like a fucking bomb."

LOL! He's been on a roll lately!

He had to defend it......he's framed his muslim hysteria.......he can't back down now. Double down.....21 is bound to turn up eventually.

[scribblet]

http://makezine.com/2015/09/16/this-is-ahmed-mohameds-clock/

If this is the clock, it sure does look like a suitcase bomb... The student here was suspended just for making a gun out of a pop tart, which looks worse.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/03/04/watch-boy-suspended-from-school-for-making-gun-out-of-a-pop-tart/

[kimmy]

Maybe it looks like what somebody who watches crappy TV shows thinks a bomb would look like.

"Bombs have circuit boards!"

"Bombs have giant clock displays so that the good-guys know how many seconds they have left to disarm them!"

"Bombs are built in suitcases to hold all of the C4 that ... isn't actually there in Ahmed's clock!"

Clearly the real threat posed by Ahmed's clock is that the electrical transformer is just bouncing around loose. Don't electrocute yourself, Ahmed!

-k

[cybercoma]

http://makezine.com/2015/09/16/this-is-ahmed-mohameds-clock/

If this is the clock, it sure does look like a suitcase bomb... The student here was suspended just for making a gun out of a pop tart, which looks worse.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/03/04/watch-boy-suspended-from-school-for-making-gun-out-of-a-pop-tart/

a suitcase bomb? lmfao

It's a pencil case and not a single person reacted as though it was a bomb.

[Canada_First]

Maybe it looks like what somebody who watches crappy TV shows thinks a bomb would look like.

"Bombs have circuit boards!"

"Bombs have giant clock displays so that the good-guys know how many seconds they have left to disarm them!"

"Bombs are built in suitcases to hold all of the C4 that ... isn't actually there in Ahmed's clock!"

Clearly the real threat posed by Ahmed's clock is that the electrical transformer is just bouncing around loose. Don't electrocute yourself, Ahmed!

-k

A clock can be used as a timer for a bomb. I would use a wrist watch though and not a big digital one but if that's all you had you certainly could use a larger clock. I think he would've planted it soneplace though and not carried it with him class to class.

[Shady]

a suitcase bomb? lmfao

It's a pencil case and not a single person reacted as though it was a bomb.

It's a pencil case in the form of a mini brief case. Kids have been sent home for much less. Like drawing a gun, or biting a pop tart into the forum of a gun. I didn't hear you say much about those incidents.

[Shady]

Btw, taking parts out of an old alarm clock and putting them into a new case isn't making a clock. But his skin is brown so the left has to overcompensate as usual.

[scribblet]

It's a pencil case in the form of a mini brief case. Kids have been sent home for much less. Like drawing a gun, or biting a pop tart into the forum of a gun. I didn't hear you say much about those incidents.

Exactly. It looked like a bomb to the teacher so she erred on the side of caution. Not that he should`ve been arrested but it`s a lesson learned. Don`t bring anything to school that even resembles a bomb. You are right about it not being an invention as everyone seems to be saying it was just an old clock put into a case. It's not just 'muslim hysteria' here...

[Wilber]

Exactly. It looked like a bomb to the teacher so she erred on the side of caution. Not that he should`ve been arrested but it`s a lesson learned. Don`t bring anything to school that even resembles a bomb. You are right about it not being an invention as everyone seems to be saying it was just an old clock put into a case. It's not just 'muslim hysteria' here...

So what exactly did the school do to protect its students from this supposed "bomb", other than calling the cops and waiting until they hauled the supposed "bomb" and its maker away?

Erring on the side of caution means getting away from the bloody thing. Not. Oh, it looks like a bomb, let's hang around and find out if it is.

[GostHacked]

During a school science fair, there were things confiscated from me and my friend when we did our science/history project on ancient weapons. With my dad's help we created a wooden mace, wooden morning star with a 5" chain. My friend had several swords. All which were confiscated. In retrospect it might have been a stupid idea. There was no public outcry and our story never made the news.