His motive was, obviously, to make something suspicious looking enough to provoke a response, which of course he got.
It was the Irving ISD's error (and gift to the Progressives) to grant him such an intemperate response (if indeed his plan was to intimidate — it's also possible he was completely innocent until the ISD overreacted, at which point his Mooselimb activist Daddy took over and engaged his CAIR connections to exploit the political windfall).
Irving ISD should have praised him for his effort, such as it was, and watched him carefully, not arrested him.
The point is not whether or not it looked like an actual bomb, but whether the kid wanted it to look enough like one to arouse suspicion. There is no doubt that this is exactly what he wanted to do.
I’m sorry - I don’t believe he was innocent - what 14 year old is proud of taking the plastic case off a clock and throwing it into a pencil case? If that makes him a clockmaker then I’m an author because I tore the cover off a book.
That’s the point - he perpetrated a massively successful hoax that just about everyone all the way up to the president fell for.
A fair jury would have heard all the evidence and not based its opinion on newspaper accounts.