Suing for $15m in "damages" after the kid got to meet the president? Now you know they've assimilated, that's a truly American thing to do.
'Clock Bomb Kid' family sues
The family of a Texas high school student arrested for taking apart a clock and bringing it to school is now suing the school district for civil rights violations. Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was briefly held last year and led out of school in handcuffs after school officials were worried that clock parts he stashed inside a pencil …
-
-
Tuesday 9th August 2016 02:13 GMT James O'Shea
$15 million in damages after the kid was 'detained' 'cause he's brown and of a different religion.
I remember building actual things which could explode in high school, mostly in an effort to make solid-fuel rocket motors, but on one memorable occasion a few of my (many, hey, we're Irish) cousins and I built a liquid fuel system using hypergolic fuels which were just a tad too hypergolic. Really big boom.
For fun we made nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin (it's easy; not blowing yourself up or dissolving yourself in sulfuric or nitric acids, that's more difficult) and we used material from our high school chemistry lab to do it. That's real, actual, explosives. The only consequence was after the liquid-fueled rocket blew up on the launch pad we got grounded for six months.
-
Tuesday 9th August 2016 08:57 GMT 2460 Something
The way he was treated was absolutely atrocious but even with that initially I was still in the '$15million, that's just ridiculous and opportunistic!' camp. However, after thinking about it a bit further, all of these institutions (be that police, school or other) are driven by money. Maybe the best way to prevent similar disgustingly small minded and racist behaviour is to hurt their pockets so that they remember the lesson.
They won't get anything near to the initial damages sort, but it is also, presumably, down to it being America and the land of the free market lawyer. They are starting their negotiations from a good figure, there will be an undisclosed settlement at some point in the future for a smaller amount plus legal fees (which will probably dwarf any payment). And on the plus side, whatever he gets out of it (and he most likely will get a reasonable amount) pays for his (and maybe even his siblings) educations and gives them a better financial start in life. Go for it and good luck to them.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
