"Asking for trouble" is what I mean. The default processes in the USA are not what I'm talking about, but everyone here is defending his "right to be creative". Nobody is saying "hang on, he put a clock in a case, brought it to school, not part of any school project, advised not to show it around, showed it around anyway and was passive aggro when asked about it".
He was asking for trouble, and got it.
His "invention" was not anything useful. The only useful function I can think of for such a device, is actually a hoax bomb for drama class. What good is a clock inside a case?
I'm getting down-voted to all hell, but that's what one gets for backing one's argument in a den of trigger-happy bigot-hunters.
He showed it to his engineering teacher. If he'd left it there, everything would have been okay. But he took it to English class.
His mother blamed racial profiling, but does that mean his ethnicity or his religion or both? Does he practice Islam? 14 year old kids studying Islam on the side, then bringing cases packed with electronics to school, then being coy when asked about it? It adds up to trouble in anyone's language.
The kid is 14 years old. So what if his invention isn't useful? He was enthusiastic about it and he probably learned something from it. Maybe some of his classmates could have learned that electronics aren't magical mysterious black boxes.
He took the object of his enthusiasm to English class. Yes, if he had left it at showing it to the engineering teacher this whole thing wouldn't have happened, but that doesn't mean he was wrong to show it to his English class.
What exactly about his behavior do you see as "asking for trouble"? Because I don't see anything that even remotely qualifies.
And what's with the "practicing Islam" thing? I was in this group where I memorized the Sermon on the Mount in junior high, in addition to going to church and doing choir. We got cookies every week. Seriously, no one thought I was getting radicalized when I "practiced" the religion of a radical Middle Easterner three times a week. Joke's on them: I got so radicalized I refused to join the church because of the hypocrisy I perceived (as a self-righteous mildly aspie junior highschooler).
And we made actual explosives at school in my day.... good times.
Yeah, seriously. Gotta watch those non-ROHS solder compounds hobbyists like to use. Also, through-hole pins can be sharp and scratchy.
This is part of the ridiculous ignorance that has a lot of us upset. At what point did a printed circuit board outside an enclosure become a "weapon"? Are the decision makers in our society (and exodust here) really so divorced from the techical world that they're informing their opinions based on the blinking gadgets in cartoons?
It's a circuit board!
Yep, that's the US today. And of course Obama doesn't waste a second to exacerbate the situation by vilifying the school/policeman/whatever. It's amazing how in 5 minutes everyone knows all the facts and concludes these school officials are racist xenophobic knuckle-draggers.
A teacher discovered it when it beeped. I'm not sure how you've lept from that to "showed it around".
EDIT:
> and was passive aggro when asked about it
I'm not sure where you got this from either.
The police officer was quoted as saying he was "passive aggressive" when questioned about the device.
Fair enough.
One more reason not to talk to the police in the first place, I guess, on top of all this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc .
