I tried to make my own gun powder when I was 13/14 myself. Never quit
got it to burn really fast. Fortunately. Luckily there was no internet
and all I had was a library and the Foxfire books.
Chuck McCown wrote:
Perhaps I was not typical, but by 14 I was making my own printed
circuit boards with a sharpie and ferric chloride. Also made my own
gunpowder, attempted to make nitro cellulose and mercury azide. (It
was lucky that the latter failed). I was also having a decent amount
of romantic success. Had a car and a restricted license to drive to
and from school (which I defined as any location where I might learn
something). I was also an apprentice in a machine shop and had a
certificate from the steamfitters union as a welder. Made excellent
acetylene bombs.
Philo Farnsworth invented electronic scanning for TV at this age.
When my mom was 14 she had been out on her own for a year.
Joan of Arc was 15 I think when she lead an army. Alexander the Great
was young.
Lots of young people do great things.
So, this 14 year old...
Was he naive enough to think he had actually "made" something? Is he
just simple?
Or was he trying to do a PR stunt?
Are 14 year olds these days really that clueless?
-----Original Message----- From: Mark - Myakka Technologies
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2015 8:19 PM
To: That One Guy /sarcasm
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT Hmmmm
Kid = 14 year old kid - they do dumb stuff
English Teacher = cave man - doesn't understand electronics, is very
concerned
needs to consult with the elders
Principle = 1/2 douche - I can understand him calling the cops to
cover his ass.
Engineering Teacher = full douche with no balls. Were the hell was
this guy. He was most likely the only one in the school that could
translate between what the kid did and dumb it down enough for
everyone to understand.
Police - 50% douche / 50% caveman. What is this
foreign wizard technology. I think I saw one of these on TV once, must
be a bomb. Burn him!
Every adult in the room with the kid as a group - 150% douche - At
what point in time did it become acceptable to bully and threaten a 14
year old kid. We have 5 - 7 adult authority figures in a room with a 14
year old kid. The best they could come up with is to slap him in hand
cuffs and drag him to jail. BTW - lets make sure we do it when all
the other kids are in the hall. WTF - why weren't his parents called to
the school? Don't give me the crap that they really thought it was a
bomb. If they thought it was a bomb, the bomb squad would have been
there and the school would have been evacuated.
Police chief - Almost acted normal. Came out fairly quick that there
was nothing to see here, so just keep moving on. He dropped the
charges real quick. Guess he didn't want anything to do with this
circus.
School system - 100% douche - how to you give a kid suspension for not
doing anything. He didn't build a bomb. He didn't pretend it was a
bomb. He never mentioned the bomb word. When asked he showed the
teacher the clock. He wasn't trying to hide anything. What exactly
did he get suspended for?
Father - not sure where to put him, seems to have a chip on his
shoulder.
At the end of the day it does matter what this kid brought to school.
It doesn't matter that he is Muslim, Jewish, Mormon or Christian. He
did nothing wrong. He answered the questions truthfully, he never
threatened anyone, and he never tried to hide anything. The adults in
this story FAILED. At any given point in time we had 7-8 adults at
the school trying to figure out what happen. As usual now a days they
over reacted and common sense what thrown into the void. This should
have never been a news story. It should have never left the school.
Parents should have been called. Maybe one police officer should have
shown up. A rational discussion of what happen should have taken
place. Kid should have been advised to clear all future
experiments/inventions with engineering teacher. Maybe all future
engineering projects should stay in the engineering lab until after
school. Kid should have been sent back to class, parents back to
work, police back to speed traps, and principal back to whatever
principles do now a days.
I only have 3 more years left of dealing with public schools. It is
sad I'm counting the days that my children go off to college.
