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

[charlie wallace]

luckily he didn't make it a themed clock with aqua teen hunger force
he might have been shot on the spot.

On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 8:03 AM, Joshua Pritt <ramgarden at gmail.com> wrote:
> That's right!  It would have been VERY EASY for the engineering teacher or
> other person familiar with electronics to verify what it is.  That quote
> from the cops that said something like "it looks just like those bombs you
> see on TV" should tell you right there what went wrong.  All of this would
> have been avoided by a simple check and verify.
>
> On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 10:57 AM, Chris Weiss <cweiss at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>