[hackerspaces] Irving Texas student suspended for bringing a circuitry-control clock project to school

[Chris Weiss]

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 11:38 PM Shirley Hicks <shirley at velochicdesign.com>
wrote:

>
> On Sep 15, 2015, at 11:37 PM, Shirley Hicks <
> redmtnadmin at redmountainmakers.org> wrote:
>
> Hey everyone,
>
> Are there any hackers on the list who are also US teachers who would care
> to comment on how to best word an email lending support to a high school
> student who has been suspended for three days for bringing a circuit board
> clock project to school? I think that this is an overreaction by the school
> leadership and the local police due to their not understanding electronic
> engineering and general hacking. I don’t want to do a social media pile on;
> I would rather helpful and educational while pointing out how they’ve got
> this very, very, wrong. FWIW - I checked a map - Irving is a Dallas suburb.
>
>
> http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-9th-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Independent_School_District
>
> Thanks!
>
> Shirley Hicks
> Secretary/Business Admin/Programmer/Maker
> Red Mountain Makers
>
>
it's very telling that the engineering teacher immediately said "don't show
it to anyone" recognizing that the school has a problem, and also that
there's no mention of that teacher stepping in to speak for Ahmed, as would
be the right thing for a mentor to do, even if after the fact.  Schools
should not be a place of fear, for students or teachers, and this school
just announced to the world that it runs on fear.  The English teacher may
have been diligent, but the principal was flat wrong, step one should have
been to call in an engineering or electronics teacher and have them
verify.  I'm not even sure how to comment about the cops, it smells of
civil right violations and harassment, but IANAL and I don't play one on TV.
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