When I first heard about a teenager in Texas arrested because of a clock, my first thought was the zero tolerance police have struck again. It brought to mind too many other instances of overreaction by school officials, such as the boy suspended because of a pop tart, and a 6 yr old for kissing a girl. Thus, when I heard the stories about the clock issue, I thought it was a big brouhaha over nothing. I mean really, how cool is it that a 14 year old decided to build a clock?!!  I’ll admit, I was thinking of clocks like this:

Building one of those as a 14 year old, and have it actually work, is quite a feat! However, there is much more to the story than overreacting to a 14 yr old’s engineering prowess. You see, its not just that he took his “clock” to school and showed off for his engineering teacher, it’s that instead of keeping it in THAT classroom he toted it around in his Vaultz pencil case (which really looks like a briefcase) for the rest of the day.

That’s not all. Ahmed brought his reengineered digital clock to school, one that didn’t have a digital display or conventional clock face and Plugged. It. In. during his English class. When questioned: