Put yourself in a 14-year old's shoes. If you had a passion for electronics and invention and were snubbed this badly for building something cool and taking it to school, how would you feel? I, for one would have been devastated. At best, I would have lost interest in school and developed deep mistrust of teachers. At worst, I would have developed an aversion to being a maker and started neglecting my grades. Mind you, 14 years is when people are hyper-aware of such things. If this had happened in college or in primary school, most of us would have weathered it.

Zuckerberg, Obama, Clinton, Dash, and others are overcorrecting for this in order to ensure that the kid doesn't get dejected and discouraged from being a maker.

There's already far too much ostracizing of nerds and geeks in school to add powerful adult actors like school principals and police into the mix. I don't see any room for 'mixed feelings' here.

We just have to hope that the kid comes out of this as happy or happier and as or more successful than he'd otherwise have been.