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"Some college administrators seem so distracted with fund raising, academic infighting, and community initiatives that they set up their emergency communications departments very poorly. Training is poor to nonexistent, secretaries are pressed into service with tremendous responsibilities for running 'notification systems' 24/7 and on weekends because no one else knows how to do it and the administration won’t pay for additional staff. Procedures are seat-of-the-pants and dependent on HIPPO (highest paid person’s opinion), except when something like Virginia Tech happens and there is some sort of scramble to do something different." --Donna
Most Colleges Avoid Risk Management, Report Says
Jill Biden Shines a Global Spotlight on American Community Colleges
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Connecticut Public Colleges Lose 200 Professors to Early Retirement
Administrators are scrambling to plug holes in their course schedules for fall, with most expecting to do so by hiring more adjuncts or increasing class sizes.
U. of Georgia Paid 2 Fraternities $2.4-Million to Relocate, Contracts Show
The two were among five with houses on property where the university plans to build new academic facilities.
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Sonoma State U. Foundation May Lose $350,000 on Loan to Former Board Member
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College Suspends Student for Working in Gay Pornography | 58
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September 21, 2007
MIT Student Sporting Circuit-Board Artwork Is Arrested in Airport Bomb Scare
Police officers arrested an MIT student at gunpoint this morning when they thought she was carrying a bomb into Logan International Airport, The Boston Globe reported.
The student, 19-year-old Star Simpson, walked into the airport at 8 a.m. with a circuit board affixed to the front of her sweatshirt. The circuit board displayed green LED lights and trailed wires running to a 9-volt battery. When an airport employee asked her about it, she did not respond, the Globe said. Police officers wielding machine guns quickly surrounded her. They determined that her prop was harmless, but arrested her for possessing a hoax device and for disturbing the peace.
The back of Ms. Simpson’s sweatshirt said, in gold handwritten letters, “socket to me” and “Course VI,” the nickname for the program in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, the Globe reported. She told the police that her garment was an art project.
“I’m an inventor, artist, engineer, and student,” Ms. Simpson says on her MIT Web site. “I love to build things, and I love crazy ideas.”
Law-enforcement authorities weren’t too crazy about her latest idea. “I’m shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an airport,” Maj. Scott Pare of the Massachusetts State Police told the Globe. “Thankfully because she followed our instructions,” he said, “she ended up in our cell instead of a morgue.” —Sara Lipka
Posted on Friday September 21, 2007 | Permalink |Comments
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I can only hope that Ms. Simpson didn’t understand the possible ramifications of her actions by choosing to wear “her art” to an airport in this, or any other country. It is rather amazing that this ignorant individual, or perhaps merely a rebellious child, did not end up wounded or killed. Moreover, it is incredible that she seems not to grasp the concern for seeing someone wearing such a device and carrying play-dough in her hand in a crowed public space (based on online news reports from earlier today). If this was a stunt to gain her “15 seconds of fame,” I sincerely hope they prosecute her and that she ends up with a criminal record; too many people could have been hurt or killed under the circumstances.
Congratulations to the employees and police officers of Logan International Airport for handling the situation as quickly and efficiently as they did.
— pls Sep 21, 04:51 PM #
America is the land of the free right? She should be able to wear what she wishes.
— Keoki Nailiili Sep 21, 05:57 PM #
It’s rather amazing to me that the Boston police seem to think that Al Qaeda’s manuals instruct all suicide bombers to place blinking LEDs on their explosives. First they shut the city down in response to a Cartoon Network advertisement – now they almost kill a young woman because she was wearing green LEDs in the shape of a star. The police over reacted, in my opinion. I hope she has the determination to pursue this all the way in the courts (assuming they don’t drop the charges) to the aquittal she deserves.
— John Sep 21, 06:04 PM #
“Thankfully because she followed our instructions,” he said, “she ended up in our cell instead of a morgue.” Do we really want to live in a society in which the police shoot people who wear clothes that they don’t like? If we do, then let’s admit that the terrorists have won.
— James Sep 21, 06:06 PM #
but was her skirt too short?
— C.S.Nunis Sep 21, 06:52 PM #
Wow. If you three seriously think that it’s not disruptive to wear a shirt with a circuit and some wires hanging off it, in an airport, then you’re as ignorant as this girl is. In a serious situation, police officers don’t have time to politely sit someone down and ask them why they are wearing a shirt with a possible bomb on it. Star Simpson, you might be an artist, but you’re definitely an idiot.
— Stephen Sep 21, 07:06 PM #
Stephen – almost anything people carry into an airport has a potential to be a bomb … why would something with visibile wires and LEDs be more likely a bomb that anything else ?
Breadboards are available at radio shack along with leds and batteries – so it’s not like these are items that only bomb makers can get – so again what makes these things more likely a bomb than anything else people are carrying around ?
— Terry Sep 21, 07:44 PM #
A “serious situation”? A chick in an airport with a silly shirt on?
— William Sep 21, 07:44 PM #
I guess having intelligence doesn’t mean tha same as having a sense of moral and social responsibility anymore in America. She obviously wanted to make a scene,so she got her scene. What if miss mush-for-common sense had in fact been a decoy; a distraction for a real bomber? Think about that before you sympathize with her.
— Tony Navarro Sep 21, 08:17 PM #
Freedom goes only so far. When it hurts others, they should be punished. This person needs psychological help.
— Kan Chandras Sep 21, 08:28 PM #
I can’t believe there are so many people on this board who find this an innocuous act of free expression. All it would take is one individual – without their prescience or “intellegence” to recognize it was an art form – to shout, “she’s got a bomb!” Try to control that mayhem in a crowded airport. That’s why there are – in fact – realistic limits on free expression. She may have gotten into MIT, but she still seems to be missing a few synapses.
— Henry Sep 21, 10:54 PM #
How does having lights on your shirt hurt others ?
— Terry Sep 21, 11:00 PM #
Terry, William, et al. Have you seen a picture of what she was wearing? And why the putty in her hand (which turned out to be Play Dough)? Check out the “design” and then tell me you would be unconcerned if you saw her walking by in a crowded airport.
— Henry Sep 22, 07:50 AM #
Ridiculous.…Our cops are busy arresting harmless teens for doing what teens normally do, but the real terrorist – the president of Iran – gets to walk into this country with top security, gets to give a speech in the UN and gets invited to Columbia Univ for a cross-cultural discussion!! What’s next? Are they going to invite Rev. OBL for a debate with full honors, while tasing another American student for questioning his leaders? Crapshoot.
— John David Sep 22, 11:18 AM #
An artist with offensive/provoking ideas is as old as time. An artist taking actions that endanger others is criminal, regardless if it is labelled “art” or not. She crossed the line when she did not initially respond, and she is now very well aware of it. I commend the police for their restraint under extreme duress.
— John Sep 24, 09:30 AM #
Henry,
Yes I saw what she was wearing and about laughed my ass off at the headline above the pircture which talked about a “fake bomb”
I have a bunch of those electronics prototyping boards (or breadboards) and it’s pretty clear from looking at it that thats what it is. You can buy them at radioshack not bombsrus.
Other than that I see a bunch of green LEDs and a battery. That’s it.
A briefcase stands a better chance of being a bomb than something like what she was wearing.
— Terry Sep 25, 08:55 PM #
I can’t believe people would think this is ok. I’m very conscientious of what I wear or carry to an airport – especially because of recent disasters. The fact that she was carrying play-dough and didn’t respond to initial inquiries means she was deliberately getting attention, aka. creating a bomb scare.
To all the people whining about stopping her, think about what would have happened if she were the real deal. How many people would have died? How do you know if potential threats are real or not until you check them out. Do you want to be wrong and let hundreds of people die just because it might have been fake? If you are willing to take that risk, I hope and pray my safety NEVER depends on you! The only way you can now say for sure that it was fake is because she was stopped.
Another thing to consider is that even if they ‘knew’ it was fake, other people there wouldn’t necessarily know. It would cause panic in some folks because it does have bomb-like elements and a caricature of someone on fire. At the very least, it is inappropriate in order to preserve peace of mind; at the most it is insane. Whatever the case, they did the right thing stopping her.
— Michael Sep 26, 03:13 PM #
The real deal? She was wearing a tiny breadboard with blinking LEDs. Think about how many laptops and other electronics pass through an airport every day. The airport security used this incident to strut their stuff. It’s good to know they could respond so quickly when called upon, but if this girl fits the airport’s profile of a terrorist and were as actually as ready to use deadly force as they conveyed, then their trigger-happiness still leads me to question their aptitude at providing practical public protection.
— Student Sep 28, 12:28 AM #