HS student makes home-made clock, gets arrested.

[Kimonio]

Microsoft sent him over $2000 worth of tech as support for him, and he's going to the white house. The south is livid right now, but he deserves it.

[Harmless]

The sad thing is that yes, today it IS a realistic thought that a 14-year-old could be an extremist who plans a terrorist attack. Given my state of knowledge, I wouldn't blame the teacher for suspecting a bomb

The case can look suspicious and in a country that is considered terrorist's arch-enemy, keeping your guard up is a good thing.
Except after read about the case and how the staff handled it, I would blame the teachers and the police too. So the kid throwed some circuits in a box and called it a clock, teacher suspects it's a bomb. OK I agree that for some without the knoweledge to tell the difference it's acceptable to be scared and call for help. Except they didn't do that. They confiscated the bomb and kept it at the principal's, called the police and patiently waited for them to pick up the kid. Did not evacuate the building (which should be normal in case of a bomb attendat, am I right?) nor called the pyrotechnists to attempt to defuse it, furthermore after everything showed that the kid did nothing wrong, they would still consider charging for a hoax bomb (they didn't because of the massive support the kid got, but even so the thing that they declared they'd charge the guy for a fake bomb is massive ♥♥♥♥).

My conclusion? They probably knew it wasn't a bomb (according to the articles, which may be more or less acurate) and just wanted to screw the poor guy. Firing probably won't change anything in the US. I remember the case of the texan girl who was shot for carrying a knife (and of course why try to aim for the hand or foot when you can morally shoot it, it's more effective).

It could be plausible. I mean the lack of explosives thing as Kimonio mentioned is something that really needs to be considered when you think something is a bomb.

Considering how the "interrogation" went on him and how they handled the situation they probably were just being total idiots. If I were in any position to do so I would fire the teachers/staff involved. That way it's a message to those that you can't get away with such stupid ♥♥♥♥.

[MessengerOfDreams]

This post by MessengerOfDreams was thumbed up by:

Harmless (September 20th, 2015, 3:36 pm)

[Venexis]

This post by Venexis was thumbed up by:

Harmless (September 20th, 2015, 3:36 pm)

[Raz]

Saw this video on reddit the otherday, I only skimmed through it but thought it was interesting.
Also might answer any questions you might have about the clock itself.

[Bogdan]

It could be plausible. I mean the lack of explosives thing as Kimonio mentioned is something that really needs to be considered when you think something is a bomb.

I think I need to point out that school staff and probably basic policemen do not have knoweledge in explosives ad did have the right to worry. Seeing the case, I think some gunpowder/grenade explosive or any other small amount of other kind of explosives can be put there, hidden somewhere in the case and then triggered by a part of the circuit when electricity comes through it. It can happen, if you don't know, always keep guard up. Give that device to me, and I'd take the possibility of having an exploding matterial in here as pretty likely. Whenether the authorities had knoweledge in the domain or not doesn't change how they handled the situation.

Regarding the part about being a fraud and plagiated clock, well first I think the massive publicity, gifts and sympathy the kid god is frankly ridiculous. I mean damn he just throwed some ♥♥♥♥ there and got in trouble, ok some folks got his kid's back for being innocent, but that doesn't mean he should be praised like a national hero and instead we should focus on investigating if there are other cases like this and support the other victims like we did here. Second he is just 14th, I don't expect him to make great inventions and frankly you cannot make a clock without clock parts which are taken from, wait for it, other clocks. Yes, maybe he just took a clock and throwed it into a case, but in the process of doing it, he may have adapted the case to the clock parts, disamble and re-asamble certain parts of the circuits and checking if it works. This is not necessary a part of brightness or inovation, but learning. Disambling that circuits, he may have understood how they work, which part is what and how they can be replicated. In 5th grade at physics, the teacher provided us batteries, metalic cables and lightbulbs and by connecting them, we made the bulb glow. Was it new? Was it innovative? Was it an invention? No, no and no. Then why did we do that? For the sake for learning, for understanding how the electricity travels from the circuit, how the most simple circuit works and in time, by adding more components, we made them more and more complex. This kid may have a knack for electricity and he is willing to learn, I wouldn't call him a bright inventor, but I'd praise his willing to learn.

[Kimonio]

you cannot make a clock without clock parts which are taken from, wait for it, other clocks.

You can, but it's complicated.

[Harmless]

So they did have the right to worry, and you're saying they worried.

Then why didn't they follow standard evacuation procedures? Call diffuses? Why didn't they do anything remotely logical/smart with the situation at hand? If I saw a potential bomb in my classroom, I would first evacuate everyone, alert the school, and call the police, and request a diffusion team.