That's what I thought. Anecdotal stories that he was a troublemaker seems to be based on immature kid stuff that annoyed some of his teachers and impressed others.
He was suspended. He'd been in detention...by his own admission. Those are facts. He regularly annoyed people and brought homemade projects to school that were a disruption to the environment. He then spent his time reminding the administration that he had rights. That is not just "a kid". That's someone who was purposefully breaking the rules, enjoying the attention, and then has reveled in the media and socialsphere attention he continues to get. His history teacher spoke to Ahmed. “I told you one day I’m going to be — and you told me yourself — I’m going to be really big on the Internet one day.” If the teacher was lying, that's worthy of a major lawsuit. Do you believe this teacher made it up? Missing the actual school records which cannot be released (how fortunate that only one side of the story is available from this family), what else can there be but testimony from his teachers who saw him every day? That kid went to school prepared to be a problem on a regular basis. He wanted the attention. He's gotten it. And now his parents want to sue for PTSD..... I'm sorry, but the day either of my kids gets even one hour of detention, they won't have any devices available to find out how "big" they are on twitter.
Was he ever told to stop bringing in projects? Was any kid told to stop? A teacher found a kid "annoying". I wonder how often that happens? Who cares? What is wrong with ambition? Not one damn thing! You are grasping at straws to make a geeky kid out to be a conspiratorial criminal mastermind. The article you quoted (and finally cited by Mancha so we could all read it) also had some pretty complimentary comments about Ahmed and it is clear that nobody thought he was a threat. "Some of his middle school teachers were surprised to hear that MacArthur High staff called police this month after Ahmed brought a homemade clock to class. He had dragged far more elaborate gizmos into Sam Houston all the time." "Some of these creations looked much like the infamous clock — a mess of wires and exposed circuits stuffed inside a hinged case, perhaps suspicious to some. But no one interviewed by The Dallas Morning News remembered Ahmed getting into trouble for bringing his creations to Sam Houston." "It didn’t take Ahmed long to learn fluent English. Once he did, he had a habit of overusing it — trying to impress classmates with a nonstop stream of chatter, teachers said, and often annoying them instead." So a precocious kid is annoying to some teachers. Big deal. Kids get detention all the time. And what was he detained for? reciting the first amendment to his principal? Blowing soap bubbles in the bathroom? Complaining about being bullied for being a muslim? That suspension got overturned. Absolutely no history of violence, threats, or crimes. If we suspend, denigrate, and call kids "little turds" for being annoying at times, how many hundred thousand students do you suppose we must add to the enemies list. Have your kids never annoyed a teacher? First of all, this is not testimony. No one is under oath. It is anecdotal, hearsay stories from a reporter's anonymous sources. That did not stop you from believing and using it anyway. No evidence or records at all. As you say, how fortunate.
I find the teacher that spoke about him "being a big sensation" one day is being a bit irresponsible in talking about that--almost like he is encouraging the kid to promote himself. What is quoted here isn't all that bad, but in another part of the article, it said something to the effect of the teacher encouraging Ahmed to buck authority and adults (that's a paraphrase and just the gist of it.) That reads (to me) like a teacher that is trying too hard to be a friend to students and not a teacher. And, @red55, if I had a dollar for every annoying kid I've seen in 24 years, I'd be wealthy by now. No, being annoying is not an indictment on a kid--many of them are quite obnoxious (especially in middle school.)
I never took something apart and then tried to pass it off as "my invention". I wonder can I pull an engine out of a car and claim I invented an engine?
They do. It's the adults, like the brainiacs at MIT that should be ashamed of themselves for blindly believing he invented anything--thereby offering him a scholarship.
Yeah, I never understood that tall tale. The story I read was that he was offered a visit to MIT and Harvard. If he doesn't make good grades and test scores, and I mean exceptionally good, he will never get a scholarship to MIT. He did get a scholarship offer to Space Camp USA.
And an offer to the University of North Texas. I sincerely hope MIT didn't offer the scholarship. That's not to say that they don't admit a number of students from North Texas. Plano ISD will have a student or two a year who go to MIT and a couple more who go to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc.
His parents should have told him to stop.....right after the first detention. He needed that energy to be directed elsewhere where it didn't disrupt the public school environment. It matters in this case because he and his family continue to prove that attention was what they all wanted. Ahmed continued to gather attention in order to get famous. Perhaps a "normal kid" wouldn't have done most of the things he did and might have listened to the science teacher when told to put the clock away. All of which were included in my post, #398. Don't try to make it look like I was hiding anything. Yes, the SAME kids get detention all the time because they lack discipline, buck authority, don't have involved parents, etc. The parents didn't do their job. It is a big deal because as the one teacher said, he'd either be a CEO or the head of a gang. Hold up, hoss. 10 days ago, before we really knew much more than details released by Ahmed and his family, you said, "The kid has never been in trouble." And 8 days ago you said this, "No, but his good behavior record suggests to anybody with good sense that they are not dealing with a known troublemaker." Where did you get that from? Had you seen any evidence to support that? Now it's that he had no history of violence or crimes. I have not said he was an enemy nor that any child with behavior and discipline issues is an enemy. My son does not annoy teachers, no. Every teacher he's ever had has said the same thing...."he's the nicest, happiest kid I've ever had in my class." His teacher last year, who helped him tremendously with his ADD struggles offered to adopt him. My daughter does not annoy teachers. She's always gotten very high marks and comments from teachers regarding her behavior. She did make a very poor choice in 6th grade that resulted in a full day of in-school detention. Considering her part, I thought it was a bit much but I fully supported it because I wanted her to learn a lesson and I wanted it to hurt. I feel lucky that it happened then and with an opportunity to make things right. Testimony is not unique to a courtroom. A person who has directly observed something and reports it can be said to have provided testimony. No. Teachers, at least one with a name, and a family friend with a name gave their observations and confirmed his prior detentions. Ahmed's father can choose to make his son's records available. If Ahmed is telling the truth, then why doesn't he do it?
