'Can You Prove You're Not A Potential Terrorist?'

[grumbler]

Actually, nobody I've heard has accused the teacher of overreacting.  If one is looking at that and doesn't know what it is, freaking out is absolutely not unreasonable.  Most of the complaints I've heard (and voiced myself) are leveled at the police and the school administration.

• They did NOT follow bomb scare protocol.
  
• They threatened to press charges because they weren't "satisfied" with Mohamed's explanation, even though it was clearly NOT a bomb, and he clearly did not CLAIM it was a bomb.  How can you have a hoax bomb that's neither a bomb nor a hoax?
  

The English teacher had a somewhat valid point, because she couldn't know what a bomb really looked like.  However, it is pretty clear that she didn't believe that this was an actual bomb because she took possession of it and kept it on her desk for a period of time - not the reaction of someone who thinks they are dealing with an explosive.

Then, of course, there is the long delay while the school bureaucracy convinces itself that this is a bomb scare, in spite of the fact that they have precisely zero evidence to believe there was any bomb scare or threat intended.  The cops get involved here somehow, either sharing or creating the panic of the administrators, and the administrators and cops proceeded to break the law in their panic and anger.

It is unclear to me whether the cops were incompetent or vicious.  The administrator, though, was pretty clearly guilty of malfeasance, what with his insistence that, contrary to law, the kid couldn't call his parents until he confessed to the fraudulent criminal charges, and then his abetting the false arrest and child abuse.

THAT's the story that hasn't been well-told, because bozos like Dawkins and HuffPo's writers are shitting up the news cycles with extraneous crap about whether the kid properly used the term "invent."

[Malthus]

How dare they get hung up on definitions and totally miss the main point for the trivial. They are honing in on our speciality!   

[grumbler]

How dare they get hung up on definitions and totally miss the main point for the trivial. They are honing in on our speciality!   

Exactly.  HuffPo is trying to break our rice bowl!

[Ideologue]

Which is exactly the point Dawkins made, no?

the motive of the id

Motives, John!  Motives of the id!

[Barrister]

Which is exactly the point Dawkins made, no?

the motive of the id

Motives, John!  Motives of the id!

[MadBurgerMaker]

The school wasn't evacuated because they didn't think it was a real bomb:

Weaver also said Thursday that school officials did not actually believe the clock was a bomb and that's why there was no evacuation of the school.
"It was determined very quickly that this was not an explosive device. However, it had the perception that could have been, which is why we had to take action. Students are prohibited from bringing things to school that could be perceived as a threat," Weaver said.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Teen-Arrested-for-Hoax-Bomb-Wont-Return-to-MacArthur-High-328129461.html

[frunk]

The school wasn't evacuated because they didn't think it was a real bomb:

Weaver also said Thursday that school officials did not actually believe the clock was a bomb and that's why there was no evacuation of the school.
"It was determined very quickly that this was not an explosive device. However, it had the perception that could have been, which is why we had to take action. Students are prohibited from bringing things to school that could be perceived as a threat," Weaver said.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Teen-Arrested-for-Hoax-Bomb-Wont-Return-to-MacArthur-High-328129461.html

Can't anything be "perceived as a threat"?  I'm pretty sure I can be quite menacing with a spoon.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Well that would probably be things more along the lines of fake guns and apparently Radio Shack clocks from 1985 shoved into a pencil case that are "threatening" just by being there, but if you were acting like a crazy person with your spoon, I'm sure you would get sent to the office.  You'd get smoked by the SWAT team if it was a spork.

[Razgovory]

The school wasn't evacuated because they didn't think it was a real bomb:

Weaver also said Thursday that school officials did not actually believe the clock was a bomb and that's why there was no evacuation of the school.
"It was determined very quickly that this was not an explosive device. However, it had the perception that could have been, which is why we had to take action. Students are prohibited from bringing things to school that could be perceived as a threat," Weaver said.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Teen-Arrested-for-Hoax-Bomb-Wont-Return-to-MacArthur-High-328129461.html

  I found that funny.  I forgot how stupid highschool can be.

[Martinus]

Which is exactly the point Dawkins made, no?

the motive of the id

Motives, John!  Motives of the id!

Motives of the id are going to be this year's moths of begging.

[Eddie Teach]

Motives of the id are going to be this year's moths of begging.

Unlikely.

[Syt]

I never finished that story.

[Ideologue]

Which is exactly the point Dawkins made, no?

the motive of the id

Motives, John!  Motives of the id!

Motives of the id are going to be this year's moths of begging.

I dunno.  It's just a reference to Forbidden Planet.  I thought it was cute.

[Barrister]

Which is exactly the point Dawkins made, no?

the motive of the id

Motives, John!  Motives of the id!

Motives of the id are going to be this year's moths of begging.

I dunno.  It's just a reference to Forbidden Planet.  I thought it was cute.

I liked it for what it was (which was a Forbidden Planet joke).

[The Brain]

Which is exactly the point Dawkins made, no?

the motive of the id

Motives, John!  Motives of the id!