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.”
On the contrary. Societies, where the sheeple have been conditioned to passively sit by and allow their societies to be threatened, create an environment where a Hitler van gain a stronghold.
Lisa N…. People like you are how people like Hitler come to power.
Here’s the boy’s father: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/muslim-at-koran-trial-says-he-didnt-know-the-holy-book-would-be-burned/2011/04/05/AFKNR3oC_story.html
Bam Bam’s comments hit the nail on the head. Nice to see some perspective on what could have resulted in a tragedy. The point of this story and others like it is to pu$$ywhip the masses into a state of total complacency, where the average Joe is too timid to act on his gut instincts for fear of being wrong about a perceived deadly threat. The next person will think twice, or three times, before alerting authorities about something out of place. Who wants to risk the humiliation? Chalk one up for the bad guys.
Did his parents know he was taking a ticking suitcase full of electronics and wires into his school? Any parent whose kid is bringing something like that into any school or public place, now matter what the family’s race or religion, or the age of the child, should call ahead and warn those in charge that the item is coming into the school and that it is harmless. If that was my kid, I would have personally delivered him and the project to school and first thing stopped in at the office or with security.
Arresting him was definitely going overboard, but he should have never brought a ticking suitcase into a school full of children. Although, as a child himself, it can be assumed he did not know better. The adults (cops, teachers and parents) failed him.
Perhaps he built it secretly in his room, behind closed doors, and snuck it onto the school bus without his parents’ knowledge?
A white boy in 2012 made a nuclear reactor… Never arrested.
‘If I burn out, I burn out’: meet Taylor Wilson, nuclear boy genius
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/20/taylor-wilson-nuclear-teen-genius-science-interview
e 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.”
That scare-quoting of the word refugee is rather significant, I think. Fortunately your repugnant prejudices are not universal and, most important, are completely unjustified. Some 4-5% of British residents are Muslim, and they are not known for their violence and lawlessness. Quite the opposite.
Let’s not forget that as a post 9/11 society, we live in a time where we have been warned–for more than a decade–to report suspicious activity. The duffle bag, left unattended in a mall or a street corner, the suspicious characters hanging around bridges or nuclear sites, snapping photos, etc. It’s our new reality, and while this alleged clock contraption–which didn’t resemble any sort of time device that I have ever seen–
didn’t actually turn out to be a bomb, I wholeheartedly commend this teacher’s smart and decisive moves in keeping her school safe from possible danger. If this had been a bomb, she would’ve been hailed as a hero and a savior. You can’t have it both ways, folks. You can’t urge vigilance and caution among your citizenry, encouraging them to act on their gut instincts when something smells wrong, then, vilify those who do so and the perceived threat turns out to be harmless. It’s counterproductive and hindsight is always 20/20. All of you who are writing and contributing from Europe–please, spare us your criticism regarding overreacting to possible terrorist threats. Europe is now circling the drain. Your pacifism, in the face of danger, has destroyed you.
What bothers me the most is that these are the people who by law spend a huge amount of time with my children. Why are they always so dumb? Exactly what does this teach the next generation? Teachers are almost like lawyers and judges now: no longer respected.
Nick
Please elaborate how this is to be blamed on women…
(popping popcorn now)
We are in serious trouble if Lisa was really in law enforcement or anti-terrorism since we will soon be finding most of us in concentration camps. Such people as her are the real danger to our freedoms when they think all they have to do is scream something and it becomes true. Too bad she forgot the elements that they tell you are the REAL components of a bomb. I have gone through such training as an airline captain, and it is obvious that this device fails the test.
Lisa is correct that there are some dry run tests done by Islamics, but it is obvious from this kid and his device, that this is not one. I know of some that happened on a Delta flight which was stopped. I used to do similar things at his age and built my own radio transmitter and brought it to class as a project. I am sure that folks like Lisa would have called the cops and I would have wound up in the same situation. I also had a spark coil with a battery I used to play with as a Jacob’s ladder device.
As for the family, it sounds like they are just the kind of people who are REAL refugees who should be granted asylum for fighting against the military government of the Sudan. That government is radical lslamic which enforced Sharia law for all citizens. So they are just our kind of folks who believe in fighting for their country and to make it better. In many circumstances, they lose and have to flee, and I welcome such people. They are our gain and Sudan’s loss.
Nick – one teacher saw it, liked it, but warned the kid. However, the clock went off in his backpack. I have never taken a clock away from a student before. Plenty of phones and a gun. Something like this and I wouldn’t have raised an eye-brow. However, I know other teachers I worked with who would have panicked and called the bomb squad.
You have to know your students and studies have shown that a school should be no bigger than about 300 students. The principal should be able to greet them all by name in the morning. Any bigger and you lose contact with the students. 6 classes of 30 students each makes it hard to remember everyone’s name.
Logic most assuredly does fail to reach certain individuals. In one breath one exclaims love for women, in the other breath one jumps to blame women in every instance, what is wrong with this picture?
Intellectually honest liberals have shown here they can hold both the Education industry and cops equally culpable. We saw that yesterday on the 13 year old kissing thread. But, you can pick out a blind liberal by their trying to put ALL the blame on cops.
Yes, when caught being illogical, snark is the “logical” response. LOL! When Bill Maher gets pimp slapped by guests he gets even more snarky than usual. Liberals have snark down pat.
And they say Americans have no appreciation of irony….
It was the hyperventilating English teacher that set the wheels in motion. If the English teacher didn’t freak, this never would have happened. Logic seems elusive to some.
Lisa,
a 29, A Leo, then a BAO, the BDO’s, f up. ! With all these letters and numbers, it must be serious.
The point about having a parent present when questioning this kid is a good one. I NEVER interview a juvenile w/o a parent present. NEVER.