Our boys are doomed in grade school...

...if this is still the state of affairs.

(Disclaimer: All following ranting is based purely on the facts noted in this article. I know nothing other than what I read there.)

Ok, so 11 year old kid attends a "magnet" school in San Diego. In other words, a school for smart kids. Not only that, but this school "emphasizes technology skills." In other words, the smart and nerdy kids. And said kid brings a "personal science project that he had been making at home to school."

You would think this would be a fairly common experience at the school for the smart nerdy kids, and would be no big deal.

But you would be wrong. So, so wrong...

The vice principal apparently spotted this little deviant showing his creation to his friends, and thought it might be dangerous. Police were notified, school went into lockdown, was then evacuated, bomb robot was sent in, device was x-ray'd.

And the device they discovered? Surely some horribly sinister device, right? Only if you consider an empty Gatorade bottle with some wires and electronics to be a weapon of mass destruction. The student said it was supposed to be a motion detector of some sort.

Apparently the authorities at this school lack the common sense God gave a donkey (either due to genetic deficiency, or some lame zero tolerance policy) and none of them could look at an empty Gatorade bottle with some wires and determine, as people who teach... you know... technology... that it wasn't dangerous.

But "The student will not be prosecuted...Police and fire officials also will not seek to recover costs associated with responding to the incident"

Well phew! What a relief that you aren't going to prosecute and fine the smart kid for inventing a motion detector and showing it to his buddies. I'm frankly surprised that kind of terrorism isn't illegal in California yet!

However, "authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling."

He get what!?!?!? Are you kidding me?!?!?

Oh yeah, "fire officials also went to the student's home and checked the garage to make sure items there were neither harmful nor explosive."

So smart kid invents motion detector, shows to buddies, sends school into lockdown, narrowly avoids prosecutions and fines, has house rifled through, and is likely sent to counseling. Oh yeah, and has his hard work confiscated.

At a school whose entire mission is to encourage kids to "cultivate their technology skills."

Way to go guys! Sounds like you really encouraged that kid! Sheesh...



Just for reference. I graduated high school in 1995. Not really that long ago in people years, but apparently eons ago in "common sense" years. I put off speech class until senior year, because while I loved physics and calculus, speech class absolutely terrified me. One of the speech types was a "demonstration speech." I searched for the one thing I thought I could talk comfortably about and explain how other people could do it.

My speech was on "how to build a potato gun."

Which I did during the course of the speech. And then demonstrated a functional device.

With a real potato.

And real fire.

The whole class went out to the football field, I gave my speech, and then launched a few potatoes from one endzone to the other.

Then somehow I ended up in a multi-school speech competition. I've got to imagine my speech teacher signed me up, because I can't fathom that I would volunteer to speak in front of an even larger crowd. Regardless, I gave the speech again, this time inside a classroom, using a potato substitute (ie. foam ball.) But still real fire. And was then somehow selected to do it in front of the whole competition. Again, using real fire.

I've got to believe, based on the prevalence of stories like the subject of this post, that such a stunt, attempted today, would land me straight in Gitmo.



Seriously... I hope our boys make it through school without being arrested...