Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project

garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"

Re:I recommend ...

[negRo_slim]

It really comes down to how inept the school officials have shown themselves to be. I'm an optimistic person but stories like this make me worry.

Just take a look at United Nuclear [unitednuclear.com] or this book [amazon.com] to see some serious science fair projects, and imagine how some of those would of went down for the poor kid!

another misleading summary

[Main Gauche]

If you RTFA, it looks like the cops are saying that they should get counseling because the kid and parents were upset by the incident.

Regardless of whether the search was reasonable, do you realize how misled you (and many others, including those who've responded to you) have been by the summary's "scare quotes"? The summary makes it sounds like the kid is being sent in for "reprogramming".

I'm probably wasting my time typing this, because it won't change anything anyway. Slashdotters will primarily continue to curse the way the government misleads the citizens, then turn around and fall for this kind of crap.

Re:another misleading summary

[letsief]

I agree it's sort of hard to know one way or the other, but I think the author of the article is implying the student and parents need counseling so this sort of thing doesn't happen again. The article's statement about counseling was stated right after it discussed the fire officials searching the home for explosives. And, it was in the same paragraph that said the student wasn't going to be prosecuted, but violated school policies. The article does talk about the student and parents being upset, but that's a little later in the article.

Maybe the author of the article is misleading us, but (somewhat uncharacteristically) Slashdot's summary seems to be pretty accurate.

Re:Counseling gets the school off the hook

[uglyduckling]

Looking at the article, it sounds as if he brought his own personal project in, not something for a science class. It sounds like he's a bit of an electronics nut, and brought something in to show his friends which the teachers then found suspicious. I can kind-of see both sides, but I don't think the boy has any blame. I used to do this all the time when I was at school, in fact I'm pretty sure the things we used to do during lunch break in the science and computer labs would get us suspended or arrested these days.

Nothing like 1984

[Velodra]

That's fucked up beyond 1984.

This is nothing like 1984. 1984 was about censorship and oppression, this is just paranoia. It probably happened due to a combination of the fear of terrorism and people's fear of technology they can't understand. Not they I don't think this both sad and slightly scary, but there are other things that can be wrong with society than trying to imitate 1984

If you REALLY want to let them know what you think

[Chas]

Here's the Contact Us page for Millennial Tech Middle School.

http://www.mtechmiddle.org/apps/contact/?rn=8783875 [mtechmiddle.org]

Maybe if enough people ask, they'll actually tell someone why they have a complete fucking moron in a position of scholastic authority over their kids.

Re:We're on our way!

[stiggle]

Reading the article (I know, but someone has to :-) ) it seems that it wasn't a Science Fair project, it was just something the kid had been playing around with at home and then brought it in to show his friends. The kid violated school policies and that is why they said he should get counselling.

So the school has a policy banning kids from being inventive and wanting to show that inventiveness off. Anyway - thats one kid the school system has scared off technology - well done San Diego Unified School District.

Re:WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

woosh...
I'm pretty sure that's what the OP was implying

Protest To The School

[jlb.think]

What we should all do is send letters of protest to the school. I have just written them asking them to apologize to the student and his family. I have suggested that the vice principal in question should be counseled on the proper way to react in such a situation. I know the chances of the school issuing an apology is low, but enough of public pressure will eventually force them to. And anyone who lives near this school should be their for the next board meeting to protest what has been done. You can contact them here: http://www.mtechmiddle.org/apps/contact/ [mtechmiddle.org]

Re:We're on our way!

[Anonymous Coward]

The kid violated school policies and that is why they said he should get counselling.

I would suggest that he now needs counselling to get over the stress of this incident. Not counselling for violating school policies.

Re:School policy

[cynyr]

Cation to all about the link in the above. It will resize your browser window repeatedly if you have javascript and flash enabled. Some warning would have been nice from the parent about that.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Principal should be fired for stupidity

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a prime example of shifting responsibility or blame. The principal had the opportunity to get an explanation from the student and react rationally. He or she choose to push the panic button to pass off any decision making that could cause questions later by other idiot politically correct over reactionary people. So what do we see after all this? We see the principal do the usual dodge that those in positions of authority always do. He successfully pushed the blame over to this poor 11 year old student for this mess of over reaction the principal actually created. This is so typical of the problems we have today where those in a position of responsibility manage to pass the blame for being stupid onto some poor sap less able to defend themselves. This poor 11yr. old student had no real chance to defend himself from this and and it seems that it was agreed the best way to protect the authority of the school was to blame the kid for everything. It would seem his parents are less than capable in taking on the establishment to right this wrong than you would hope. This would be so wrong if this was a rational world. Unfortunately once again, we see it isn't.

Re:Article missing a critical detail.

[Lorens]

Sure. I'll save you the read: there is nothing relevant in there.

http://www.mtechmiddle.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=58810&type=d&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=87933&hideMenu=1&rn=6634111 [mtechmiddle.org]

Their About Us/Mission and Vision Statement is a gas, though.

Re:We're on our way!

[coolgeek]

You can read them here [mtechmiddle.org]. If you can see where the kid violated school policy, I'd appreciate it if you could explain it to me.

Re:I recommend ...

[xtracto]

I am sorry to tell you this guys but, you (USA) have lost the war against terrorism.

The Terrorists have won and brought your society to their knees.

Sorry.

Re:Counseling gets the school off the hook

[coolgeek]

You could share your thoughts with them [mtechmiddle.org]

The Principle and all involved

[gearloos]

Someone please find these asshats emails and post them here ! 2 million emails jamming the local system should help get the point across although it will probably just make the poor admins life miserable. !We really need to get rid of clowns like these (the school authorities involved). It is a constant irritation that they are "not filing charges". THEY (the school authorities involved) should be charged and it should be dam serious enough to make them think about throwing a families life into disarray the next time. As for local police, well you can't fix stupid.

Re:I recommend ...

[Sulphur]

Those who can do,
those who can't teach,
and those who can't teach administrate.

--

Don't get me started.

Re:I recommend ...

[markfinn]

Those who can do,
those who can't teach,

From every good teacher you ever had:

Fuck You.

In defense of Dylan Klebold

[MillionthMonkey]

They may have students a lot like Dylan Klebold in their school, and don't know how to ensure that they don't go off the deep end, so they do the best they can.

Forensic analysis of the massacre concluded that it was orchestrated by Eric Harris, who was a clinical psychopath. Dylan Klebold was just a maladjusted doofus that Harris took along for the ride.

Re:I recommend ...

[mwvdlee]

Funny thing is; had it indeed been a bomb, they would have been too late as it was already inside the building.

Re:I recommend ...

[mhajicek]

At least there was plasticine. Plasticine + wires + electronic components COULD be a bomb. An empty bottle with wires and components cannot be a bomb.