[Kosh]

Just wow

SAN DIEGO — 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.

Both the student and his parents were "very cooperative" with authorities, Luque said. He said 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.

The student will not be prosecuted, but authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling, the spokesman said. The student violated school policies, but there was no criminal intent, Luque said.

"There will be no (criminal) charges whatsoever," Luque said.

Police and fire officials also will not seek to recover costs associated with responding to the incident, the spokesman said.

Luque said both the student and his parents were extremely upset.

"He was very shaken by the whole situation, as were his parents," Luque said.

The school is located on Carolina Lane near Hilltop Drive.

Adjacent Gompers Charter Middle School was not affected during the incident, police Sgt. Ray Battrick said.

Millennial Middle School opened in fall 2008. It is part of the San Diego Unified School District.

Let me get this straight, he built a cool project on a budget, and he is going to get counseling for it? That is absurd. It's truely a sad day when we start accusing our own elementry school students of being terrorists.......

[iamzack]

What school policies did he violate? Is there a ban on wires in a bottle?

[The E]

There is a ban on making the authorities look stupid by leading them to believe that you could be carrying a bomb.

Boing Boing had a good image here:


How the hell they got the idea that an empty bottle with a few wires inside could be an explosive device so dangerous that the school had to be evacuated is beyond me. The stupid, it burns.

[SpardaSon21]

I don't know why it was recommended the parents and the child get counseling.  I mean, it was a school focused on technology, so the child was probably applying knowledge learned in the classroom to an at-home project.  The school should be glad that student is interested in technology enough to build a motion detector in his spare time.

[Nuke]

this is america, we want our kids to grow up to be stupid, ignorant, slaves

[blackhole]

this is america, we want our kids to grow up to be stupid, ignorant, slaves

And we prove how successful we are at doing so all the time

[Thaeris]

I had some... interesting... experiences similar to this BS during my 6th grade. The end results of this were in me being home schooled up until high school. And the crime? Get this: drawing medieval weaponry. 

A lot of these early grade school admins really seem to have some strange problems with judgement. I heard a while back that a female elementary school student brought in a discharged shot gun shell - a discharged shell... you know, empty/no danger what-so-ever? - and got expelled for it. For goodness sake, she probably found the silly thing on the side of the road and showed it to her teacher! What a load of horse sh*t...

To this matter I will cite the classic film, "Uncle Buck." I really have to applaud the character for telling the assistant priciple off for her charges against his niece. I'd link to YouTube, but there were no examples of the clip in high enough quality to warrant a posting here. However, you search yourself, look for something to due with "Uncle Buck" and "school."

[BloodEagle]

You know, it's bull**** like this that makes anarchy seem reasonable.

[Colonol Dekker]

Right, I appreciate the headteachers point of view here.
 
It's a teacher, likely no idea what a bomb would look like.
Better safe than sorry is better EVERY time when it comes to IEDs.
 
I know this to be a fact and this has saved my life seven times.
 
The counselling isn't stated as being to stop the kid blowing up anything, it's more likely to calm everyone down after an potential wrongful arrest.
 
I'd make an EDUCATED guess that the detector was some sort of trembler switch which could be mistaken for components.
 
No-one was seriously hurt and no charges were made.
 
This is just rubber necking.

[Dark RevenantX]

^^^ Dekker, whilst completely sober.  A rare sight.  Observe its magnificence.

[Kosh]

Right, I appreciate the headteachers point of view here.
 
It's a teacher, likely no idea what a bomb would look like.
Better safe than sorry is better EVERY time when it comes to IEDs.
 
I know this to be a fact and this has saved my life seven times.
 
The counselling isn't stated as being to stop the kid blowing up anything, it's more likely to calm everyone down after an potential wrongful arrest.
 
I'd make an EDUCATED guess that the detector was some sort of trembler switch which could be mistaken for components.
 
No-one was seriously hurt and no charges were made.
 
This is just rubber necking.

The thing is the bottle was EMPTY (no liquids no solids), so even if it had some kind of flammable gas, you can't pack enough into a small PLASTIC gatorade bottle to do much more than singe your eyebrows if your standing next to it. Not worth the hubub, not one bit. If it was full of liquids of some kind or even a solid then there would be just cause, but there wasn't.

And like I said, when we start assuming our elementry school students are terrorists, then it shows how far we really have fallen as a nation.

[Blue Lion]

If I saw a kid with a device like that, I would not walk over and ask if there was any liquid in it.  Mostly cause I would be afraid the answer would be yes.

If I saw a kid with a device like that, I would most certainly tell the principal. And they would probably call the police.

[Dilmah G]

But dude, IT'S A KID.

[Blue Lion]

But dude, IT'S A KID.

Yea cause kids never get mad and try to hurt people at school. Ever.

[Scotty]

Yeah, cuz kids always try to hurt people with freaking bombs.

 

[Blue Lion]

Actually homemade bombs are a pretty common way for kids to attack (or at least try to) their school.

[General Battuta]

I gotta dispute the 'common' there.

[BloodEagle]

Actually homemade bombs are a pretty common way for kids to attack (or at least try to) their school.^{[citation needed]}

---------------------------------

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.

That's the problem, right there in a nutshell.

From the viewpoint of the VP, it assumes either conspiracy or idiocy.

[Blue Lion]

Actually homemade bombs are a pretty common way for kids to attack (or at least try to) their school.^{[citation needed]}

---------------------------------

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.

That's the problem, right there in a nutshell.

From the viewpoint of the VP, it assumes either conspiracy or idiocy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school-related_attacks

I see quite a few bomb attempts in that list. And I'm almost sure that list isn't comprehensive.

The problem is the VP saw an item and didn't say "that can't be a bomb" and walked away?

[Pred the Penguin]

But dude, IT'S A KID.

How do you know the kid made it?