I don’t think there were any geniuses present on any side of this affair, all the way up to the White House. What should have resulted in a short note to Clockhmed’s parents about bringing unshielded 120 volt appliances to school ended up with everyone looking stupid.
At this point, unless something else turns up, I have to believe he was being cheeky by bringing this “project” in, as the teaching staff knew him to be.
It appears from his own statements that he knew he was in the area of making something that could “look suspicious.”
Why would he? He was in a new school, where they didn’t know of his “greatness,” and 9/11 was the Friday before. He may have left the school that day angry and “wanting to show them.”
And it seems most likely that in his adolescent understanding, he thought he could be clever and go up to the line but wasn’t crossing it if he was AMBIGUOUS, rather than making an actual bomb.
It’s just like an adolescent to think something like that - that if you just “cleverly” suggest something dangerous, and you are able to claim “plausible denial,” that you can get away with something.
And he might have, except with the level of serious school violence there is, and legitimate terrorism fears, even suggesting a threat raises a question in people’s minds.
And that is where training people to respond to threats comes in - responding to red flags. If something concerns you and gives you pause, even if you don’t understand it and you know there likely isn’t a problem, report it or investigate it anyway.