angrymnk wrote:
I think even you will agree that there certain level of difference between school and WH. One is not like the other.
Sure. But it's the White House Obama is inviting him to visit. A location where I'm sure the security reaction would have been far far more dramatic than the school's. As you say, one is not like the other.
Quote:
As for the clock, it was determined NOT to be a bomb and it was still pursued under "well, it may not be a bomb, but maybe he wanted to make it look like sort of a bomb". ****, the police told everyone they could it was not a bomb.
It's not stated in the article at what point the police were sure it wasn't a bomb. It only says (present tense) "And police have no reason to think it was dangerous.". That came from the police spokesperson later. Again, note the tense. If the police on the scene knew it wasn't a bomb, it would say "had", not "have". The other speculate was after the fact as well. It was about whether they should charge him for a hoax because he brought something that looked like a bomb to school. The point being that this article does not say at all that the police and others at the scene knew it wasn't a bomb, and was completely harmless. It does, however, include two quotes from two different members of the staff saying that it did look like a bomb to them (and presumably the third teacher who told him not to show it to anyone had his reasons for telling him that).
Quote:
Are you telling me that you cannot carry **** with you no matter how benign it is? Do I have consider the possibility that some functional ****** watched too much 24, or should I expect a little bit more from people who are a position of authority?
If it's something that nearly every single random person who sees it will assume *is* something that is dangerous? Yeah. Tell you what. Go build a device just like the one he did, and walk around a downtown street holding it and see how long it takes for a swat team to show up. I'll wait.
Just because you know something is harmless doesn't mean that others around you do. Demanding a security response based on "people should know that I didn't make something dangerous" is kinda unworkable, right? Security have to assume that anything they see that looks like it could be dangerous
is dangerous. It doesn't work the other way.
Quote:
So you CAN and you SHOULD fault the school officials, and the police for overreacting. It was not necessary and it only ensures that HS in US remains among the worst in the world. Unless you are going for that. If so, good job.
The story does not provide details about the decision making process timeline though. It only looks like an overreaction after the fact. If that had, in fact, been a bomb, we'd be praising the quick thinking action of the staff at the school for saving the lives of many students. I think that one student learning the harsh lesson that it's a bad idea to bring something to school that might look like a bomb is a small price to pay to ensure that the next kid, who maybe really is bringing a bomb to school, doesn't kill a bunch of students. And frankly, I think the public reaction towards the school and police is really harmful. For the sake of political correctness, we're going to basically tell every other school in the country that they shouldn't respond to a potential bomb in their school? That's pretty insane.
There have been a ton of harsh seeming reactions to students under our zero tolerance rules. It's an issue, and one that I tend to lean against. But in this case, the reaction is strange. Do we set a separate reactionary standard for Muslim kinds now? Cause that's what it looks like we're doing here. If this kid was white, I'm reasonably certain that the overwhelming reaction would have been "that was dumb of him". He certainly would not have gotten an invite to the White House. I do agree that our zero tolerance rules are problematic, but I'm not comfortable with what I see as a reaction to it that's based on the person involved, and not the action taken. Objectively, it's hard to argue that what he did was anything less than monumentally stupid. Hand waving that away because "he's a good kid", just doesn't work in my opinion. Rules (and laws) have to apply equally for everyone. Even (maybe especially) for ones we may disagree with.