Reply to 9th Grade Muslim student arrested for making a homemade clock fro school project

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[quote=Anonymous]Here's the thing -- this should never have been a story.  If the admin. folks had any (and I mean "any") common sense this would not have made it out of the vice-principals office.  Ahmed would have been told -- "kind of cool but don't bring stuff that looks like this to school.  Pick it up at the end of the day, and in the meantime I am going to get you some info. on robotics club, stage crew and some engineering stuff we have going on.  See you at 3:00."  If they wanted, the admin folks could have also called Ahmed's parents and said, "Hey - Ahmed brought a timer he built to school today.  It looks a bit iffy so one of his teachers asked me to talk to him.  I did and we're cool.  I just wanted you to know, and I would like you to talk to him about what is appropriate from an appearance perspective.  We live in times where school security is top of everyone's mind.  So, it's best to be smart about this kind of stuff.  Also, I am sending home info on things Ahmed can get involved with here at school where he can put his talents to use."  Problem solved.  Everyone is happy.  Common sense prevails.  No story.

Instead -- the admin and campus police decided to go into "bully" mode.  Now, I have no problem with a teacher wanted the thing checked out.  I have no problem with sending some in building security to call Ahmed out of class.  If the teacher was worried.  It is worth doing.  I still have never heard what the teacher said though.  Clearly the building was not put into any sort of alert mode.  And, if you really are concerned about a bomb why would you carry it through the halls of a school.  If you were someone in the office that day would you want building security to bring a suspect bomb by you and put it in a room near you?  If you were a parent of a kid at the school, would you want them carrying a suspect bomb by your kid?  And -- what police agency ever touches a suspect bomb?  Ever?  The procedure is to immediately clear the surrounding area and then call in the professionals.  The procedure is NOT; go pick up the thing and carry it around and through a building full of kids then bring it into a room full of adults.  Really?

However, because now we have several adults and police involved we no longer can ratchet things back to a simple talk and phone call.  Because we now have to justify everyone's time on this -- we double down and decide to question Ahmed and then arrest him when he says he built a clock.  Now - wouldn't you think that in a room full of school admins charged with enforcing school discipline, and police officers who are working in the school that it must have occurred to someone, "Hey - if we really are thinking we need to have Ahmed arrested then shouldn't we call his parents, and shouldn't we stop questioning him until they get here?"  Nope.  No one.  Instead -- the decision is made to go for broke (literally as it turns out), cuff the kid and walk him out at the end of the school day.  No one will notice anything odd there right?

Here's where the police screwed up:  Police on a high school campus work "WITH" the administration, but they do not work "FOR" the administration.  Police officers must exercise their own judgment based on their own experience and training.  Yes -- the police here should have talked to the admin folks, the teachers, and inspected the device.  They then should have said -- "Not a police matter.  Thanks for calling us though."

I would guess it was right about midnight of that evening, when it was clear that the matter was blowing up and not going away, everyone in that room who thought it was a good idea to question and then arrest Ahmed was having second thoughts.  How happy do you suppose Chief Boyd is with his officers now that millions of people think he is a complete idiot as he has to talk to the media and give obviously silly answers because he knows his department is going to get sued.

This is one of those times though that can be a real learning experience for a school and for a community.  Principals and other admins are paid, in part, to exercise what we hope is good judgment in dealing with our kids.  Yes, from time to time kids will do bad stuff and stupid stuff and the school will have to invoke some punishment.  We, as parents, must demand that our school admins. have and use good judgment, and if they cannot -- then they need to go.

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