School sees science project of 11-year-old as threat — This is incredible. Exactly how stupid are these people? No wonder the kids learn nothing in California schools.
Students were evacuated from Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School in the Chollas View neighborhood Friday afternoon after an 11-year-old student brought a personal science project that he had been making at home to school, authorities said.
Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said the student had been making the device in his home garage. A vice principal saw the student showing it to other students at school about 11:40 a.m. Friday and was concerned that it might be harmful, and San Diego police were notified.
The school, which has about 440 students in grades 6 to 8 and emphasizes technology skills, was initially put on lockdown while authorities responded.
Luque said the project was made of an empty half-liter Gatorade bottle with some wires and other electrical components attached. There was no substance inside.
When police and the Metro Arson Strike Team responded, they also found electrical components in the student’s backpack, Luque said. After talking to the student, it was decided about 1 p.m. to evacuate the school as a precaution while the item was examined. Students were escorted to a nearby playing field, and parents were called and told they could come pick up their children.
A MAST robot took pictures of the device and X-rays were evaluated. About 3 p.m., the device was determined to be harmless, Luque said. Luque said the project was intended to be a type of motion-detector device.
Found by Kevin Terminella via Twitter.
Paranoia on all levels… Poor country!
And this is a Science school?
Needs the VP transferred here to be the head, main teacher, substitute and janitor at one of our fine state schools. Preferably where the school is a dilapidated prefab that fell down ten years ago.
He will go back after his year with a renewed appreciation of his worth and abilities, if he goes back at all.
Is it any wonder that the US has trouble getting enough kids to go into STEM fields? From an early age we are taught not to question authority and doing electronic projects on your own is bad and dangerous. Sheesh!
This country is so screwed on so many levels.
Thanks to the government, we have all been trained to see terrorist everywhere.
The “terrorists” have clearly won.
Wow! That would be so cool to have built a science project that caused the bomb squad to show up. He’s only 11 years old and already has a great story to tell his grandchildren some day.
I hope his parents can find him a new school with a real science class.
At my school in 1990 we had a day where they featured collections. We had 2 students bring in at least 50 guns each of various types to show. They had to disable them but the school was EXCITED to have them. No one was injured and no cops showed up. It was a normal day. I would spend 1 day a month sharpening knives in woodshop. Students and teachers alike would bring in their sheath and folding knives for me to sharpen. Nothing more than a small cut ever happened. I’m surprised they allow Chemistry, woodshop, autoshop, music, art and so-on. Anyone of those classes have items that can be used to harm people and property.
UUMMM,
OK..
ITS A TECH school, and the principle has NOT TECH KNOWLEDGE??
HE didnt call in ANY TEACHERS for the class it was made for??
HE DIDNT ASK THE KID??
OK, The principle ISNT an elected person, SO WHO THE $@#$ gave him this job?? ANOTHER paranoid NON GEEK.
If I were that kid I’d be absolutely furious.
#10,
Click through and read the whole article, the kid is lucky they didn’t press charges for their ignorance and stupidity.
Is everyone a terrorist? Why couldn’t one approach the child ask about the item? Look at it? Fricking coward. Probably Vice-Principal Cheney.
Would it be too much to ask to have the adult investigate a little? what a coward! Stupid Vice-Principal Cheney.
Remember the days when doing something on your own initiative was rewarded in school? That’s what this kid did. That’s the kind of thing that resulted in the US becoming the center of innovation and creativity. This kid will never do anything on his own initiative again. This is a perfect example of why we are in decline.
They would have really freaked out at my science project from JHS school then.
I used a series of IC timers and built my own digital counter on a PC breadboard. It started at 999 and counted backward. When it reached 0, a buzzer sounded.
I can’t even imagine the hoopla that would cause today.
Being an Egg Timer salesman must be really hard when traveling.
#15,
When I was in Jr High I did a speech in speech class on how to make little miniature rockets out of aluminum foil and matches. Not only would that not go over in the schools now days, but the match makers have engineered the matches so that they burn slower as well.
I hope his parents can find him a new school with a real science class.
That’s the key. This school is obviously pretending to be a tech school.
To be fair, electronics is not popular in high schools and almost non-existent in middle schools. Why? Because the students don’t want to do math. Thanks to IT classes (Cisco, Microsoft, A+) the truly important stuff, the foundation skills, have largely gone away. There’s some indication electronics will make a return, but not in a big enough way to matter, and HS students creating interesting electronics projects is a thing of the past. This is not good, IMO.
If the VP incites extreme fear in those around him, is he by definition a terrorist?
Nothing to see here, get counseling and move along.
Thats all.
The polise authorities recommed counseling for both the parents and the child.
The vice principal is the one needing counseling. He caused panic and fear for the whole school, the parents and the child.
The vice principal should also pay for the cost of down time at the school and the police authorities’ time.
Because of some paranoid person, a 11 year old child could have had a felony record.
Perfect example of how the terrorists are winning! The other example is the two wars we have fought in which we have lost many lives and spent billions of dollars. Yeah America.
Does anyone else want more info in the liquid filled motion detection device or is it just me. Not a bad idea for s student. It is amazing what could have been learned is the teachers and administrators had just asked the student.
Bomb those idiots with emails of disgust…
http://www.mtechmiddle.org/apps/staff/?rn=6669052
A few months ago I woke up to helicopters hovering over my house. Three blocks away there is a high school, where an ex-student had brought in several pipe bombs and started throwing them. He was also wearing an explosive vest. The guy was tackled by one of the teachers and kept from detonating himself. All this in a neighborhood where houses start at 1/2 million dollars.
http://ktvu.com/news/20531360/detail.html
In the OP article, a kid brings in a strangely wired device, is interviewed by police and they find other strange devices in the kid’s backpack. Suspicions rise and the school is evacuated while they make sure that the kid is not gun and explosive nut. Well done.
Thus is not a story about terrorism, it is a story about caution based on repeated bad experiences in other schools.
“When police and the Metro Arson Strike Team responded, they also found electrical components in the student’s backpack, Luque said. After talking to the student”
A.) I really want to see a transcript of that conversation
B.) Why does it take a A MAST robot taking x-rays and pictures to determine it harmless
when
C.)the project was made of an empty half-liter Gatorade bottle with some wires and other electrical components attached. There was no substance inside.
Keystone cops don’t begin to explain this.
‘…fire officials also went to the student’s home and checked the garage to make sure items there were neither harmful nor explosive. “There was nothing hazardous at the house,” Luque said.’
This is a problem of degrees.
Someone who has dangerous materials but does nothing dangerous in not a danger. The car you drive is a dangerous weapon filled with almost 100 pounds of explosive gas, are you a danger because you have a car?
We all have to use our intelligence and experience to make rational decisions. By the account, the VP acted irrationally.
And they was using up all kinds of cop equipment that they had hanging around the police officer’s station.
They was taking plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints, and they took twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us.
-a tribute to Alice’s Restaurant
HE SHOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR THE COST OF OPERATING THE BOMB ROBOT! THE PUNISHMENT NEEDS TO BE MORE SEVERE!
and on, and on, and on. we’re fucked.
Are you REALLY suggesting that the KID, who is 11, should be PENALIZED? Un-F-ing believable. The VP is an idiot. These things are setting precedents. If they continue, the smartest people left in the country will LEAVE. The kid should be given an A, for first thinking of this, and them, having to tolerate so much idiocy on so many different levels from so many people..Most of us who are above 35 used to blow stuff up with M-80’s for FUN weekly. Now, we are so afraid of Bin Laden popping up in some rural place, we have totally lost common sense and our sense of what our country is, and who the people are that make it up. UN Believable..