Ahmed Mohamed, 14, had thought that he had achieved something that would garner praise at at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas. He had made a homemade digital clock from a pencil case. Instead, teachers called police and Ahmed was interrogated and taken to the police station on suspicion of a bomb hoax. UPDATE: some critics have expressed doubt over the clock as well as the narrative.
The teen, who wants to go to MIT, was a robotics club member and won awards for his inventions. He said that he actually showed it to one teacher who said it was impressive but recommended that he not show it to people at the school. Then it beeped in class and he showed the source of the noise.
Ahmed’s English teacher thought the clock was a bomb and that triggered a bizarre response of multiple teachers and police who took Ahmed into custody without any evidence supporting the allegation of a bomb. He said that was pulled out of class and taken to a room with four police officers. He said that one immediately said “Yup. That’s who I thought it was.” Another said to him, “So you tried to make a bomb?” He said that he kept saying it was a clock.
Irving Police spokesman Officer James McLellan insisted “We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only tell us that it was a clock.”
Well, that was probably because it was a clock Officer McLellan.
Chief Larry Boyd added that Ahmed should have been “forthcoming” by going beyond the description that what he made was a clock. Like what? I can only think of two relevant points. One it is a clock. Two it is not a bomb.
What he did allegedly say is that he wanted to speak with his parents, but that was allegedly one thing that the police did not want to hear. He was held without a lawyer or speaking with his parents according to reports.
Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, reportedly came to his country after fighting for greater freedoms in Sudan where he twice ran for the presidency. He would find his son “surrounded by five police and . . . handcuffed.” He also learned that the police had denied him the right to call his parents by saying that they had not technically put him under arrest.
His family have questioned whether he would have been treated the same way if his name were not Mohamed and was Muslim.
Thousands have rallied around Ahmed under the hashtag “#IstandwithAhmed.” They include Nasa scientists who noticed he was wearing a NASA teeshirt as well as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Even President Barack Obama, tweeted to Ahmed: “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.”
Perhaps you didn’t notice the male police officer standing behind the frightened, 98-pound, 14 year-old in handcuffs. I wonder where the “almost assuredly female teacher” got the cuffs from when “she” “freaked.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/16/police-violated-ahmed-mohamed-s-civil-rights-by-keeping-away-his-parents.html
“The law is clear: Juveniles in Texas may have a parent, guardian, or attorney present during interrogation. Mohamed was repeatedly denied this request.
“Irving, Texas police violated Ahmed Mohamed’s civil rights by denying his repeated requests to speak with his parents during his detention for a purported bomb that was in fact a clock.
“Mohamed, a freshman at MacArthur High School, insists he repeatedly asked officers to call his parents while being interrogated. Mohamed was questioned at the school, then taken in handcuffs to a juvenile detention center, where he was fingerprinted and interrogated without his parents present, according to police and Mohamed.
“Texas Family Code is clear this was not supposed to happen.” -Ben Collins, The Daily Beast
The Mayor of Irving Texas is a major Islamaphobe. The police involved in this matter, along with the alleged educators all need to be fired immediately for their treatment of this boy. None are fit to do their jobs competently. They should never be allowed in positions of power again, over anyone.
DBQ
There is a difference illustrated daily in these here United States between proactive and just plain stupid.
It was an English teacher who freaked. Almost assuredly a female English teacher. More men are needed in education. That could have prevented this cluster coitus. BALANCE is the key in any organization. The Education industry, among all their problems, is woefully unbalanced. NOW, I am not anti-woman. I love women. The Catholic church shows the problems when men dominate an organization. The Education industry shows the problem when women dominate.
It really puzzles me. What _has_ happened to us in Europe? I have no idea what that means, and I live here.
@ Tony
You must not have any imagination at all then.
We have a bet going in our area on how soon it will be that some if not many of the ‘refugees’ that are invading Europe will turn out to be ISIS and when the beheadings and bombings will begin. About 4 months is the general consensus.
I hope we are wrong. But, I fear we are not.
Being proactive about protecting your own safety and the integrity of your society does not necessarily equal racism.
Ok….to be fair…..to the technological dopes in the public school education system, the device probably did look scary. If they had done nothing and it was a bomb, the blame game would never end.
However, the kid already told a couple of teachers that is was a CLOCK and showed the item to them. The over reaction by the other teachers would be laughable if it weren’t such a symptom of the knee jerk mindset prevailing in schools today.. As Donna said….they get all vapor locked over pop tarts chewed into the shape of a gun.
The correct thing to do would be to take the device, isolate it and have it checked out by a bomb expert. Then apologize and give it back to the kid with compliments on his ingenuity. Also advise him the next time he has an invention to show off, get some clearance ahead of time so there are no surprises.
This is a very clever, intelligent young man and I hope he isn’t turned off in his endeavors by this treatment.
Plus…..kind of cool to see that Geeky and Nerdiness crosses all cultural and ethnic borders.
Education industry and cops working in consort. What could possibly go wrong???
How about everybody calm down. Police should have left the kid alone, taken the clock/bomb to a safe area and found put what it was. This has nothing to do with Islam. These days if a kid draws a gun on a piece of paper, schools go all wacko, suspensions occur, media descends.
In Irving, Texas?
Oh, no. It’s happening….
Cyberdyne is in Texas!!!
There are only two reasons for what the school and the police did. Either they are willfully exhibiting anti Islamic sentiments or they are simply plain stupid. A third and more obvious reason is that they are a combination of the two.
The school was either/or too stupid or too anti Islamist to have a science teacher have a look, send the ‘bomb’ out of the school to the police station, ask the police to send an ‘expert’, call the parents and have the parents and school stay with the kid while the police verified what the clock/bomb actually was, and so on.
The procedure of the school officials and the police is another lamentable example of extremely low IQs in areas that demand rationality, reasoning, and more importantly intelligence. They appear to be all candidates for the Republican nominee for President. What would Sarah Palin think? What does Trump think; after all he thinks vaccines cause autism?
The strength of America is that it can handle these morons and still survive; but for how long and at what cost. They finger printed and handcuffed the kid, whoa……
Lisa,
Get a grip.
Wacko! Call her Wacko!
What kind of people call her Wacko?
Fat kids, skinny kids,
Kids who climb on rocks….
etc
Of course it HAD to be a bomb, homemade clocks are something one should only expect from those students at the charter or private schools.
Doglover’s comment is right. All the commenits need to be force fed to the school teachers and dumb principal and then to the igPays.
Lisa: the kid did not bring his home made clock to an airport.
Lisa N. If it was such a serious situation(it wasn’t and i suspect you are a flaming racist), WHY WASNT THE SCHOOL EVACUATED?!?!?! EVERY student has grounds for a lawsuit if, the school officials, thinking they had a bomb, chose not to alert the school and evacuate. the fact that they waited several class periods to react says one of two things(possibly both) 1. The school officials and officers knew it wasn’t a bomb and just wanted to harass this kid, or 2. They willingly withheld information of a potential attack and allowed all the students and employees to remain in place when the thing did go off. NO ONE acted properly here. and to blame it on the kid “shouldn’t bring things like that to class” that’s probably true. But here’s the thing: TEENAGE BOYS ARE STUPID. They do not think. They do not consider consequences. Their hormones cause them to simply and impulsively act. The fact that the teenage boy in this scenario has been the most mature and level headed of all involved really says something. Also don’t bother telling me to get a clue. I have plenty. I suspect you need to watch a little less fox and cnn
This thread reveals a person whose ideology and personal loathing are a threat to American freedom. Someone whose respect for human rights is nil, who would think nothing of destroying innocent children’s lives. But fortunately for Lisa N, she has a protected constitutional right to talk like that.
About Lisa N’s comments on Europe: I often hear talk like that from a certain kind of American. “Europe played dumb and look what it got them.” It really puzzles me. What _has_ happened to us in Europe? I have no idea what that means, and I live here.
The outpouring of support for Ahmed has been magnificent. The best of America starts to wake up and confront the ongoing domestic consequences of its longest and most damaging war.
Unkosher, but in a different way than Lisa, ….living in the US (or probably Europe) with a Muslim name is the same as wearing a target on your forehead. There are just too many crazed phobics in the US for that to be safe for anyone. Muslims need to change their names when they become US citizens and give their children western names if they want to avoid being targets of crazed maniacs. It’s unfortunate but it’s reality.
Domestic white hate groups – not Muslims – account for the vast majority of terrorism in the U.S. according to Mike German, former FBI Special Agent and expert on domestic terrorism.
Here’s the actual clock with a description from the folks at Make magazine:
http://makezine.com/2015/09/16/this-is-ahmed-mohameds-clock/
Also, if they thought it was a bomb, why didn’t they call the bomb squad?