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.”
Obama had the 3 brave young men from “jack booted” America who saved hundreds of cheese eating cowardly French from getting killed. You’re welcome world!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bristol-palin-ahmed-mohamed_55fb2acfe4b00310edf6639a
“Bristol Palin, former reality television star and daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), criticized President Barack Obama for inviting a Muslim teenager to the White House after he was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school.”
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Maybe if Bristol had paid attention in Biology class she wouldn’t have had two unplanned pregnancies.
DBQ
There was reason for concern. Unfortunately between the school and the police there was not one person intelligent enough to proceed appropriately. One doesn’t have the boy arrested, handcuffed, fingerprinted, and interrogated, violating is rights, coaching him along the way.
You have a point as the US and other countries are at war with nut cases and thugs along with having plenty of non affiliated home grown nut cases. However, one would like to think that we are not running amok as was illustrated in this situation. There are no redeeming elements in this event that would exonerate the school and the police. They acted unprofessionally, stupidly, and as one might expect in a nation policed by jackbooted neanderthals. There is nothing to be proud of here.
Place the Islamaophobia to the side and you are still left with a school and police force that are beyond inept. One cannot argue that there is not room for improvement here.
issac – you didn’t read the article did you? It said one teacher looked at it, approved and warned him about other teachers.
78% of public school teachers are women. Does anyone here think a male shop teacher would have gotten the vapors when he saw this device and screamed for the police? No, he would have said, āCool dude, how did you solder those 2 small connections?ā
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Misogyny on display for all the internet to see.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/17/man-i-went-viral-my-day-with-ahmed-moahmed-the-most-famous-boy-on-earth.html “This part of Texas is a hotbed of Islamophobia. Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne in March claimed Muslim clergy were ābypassing American courtsā by offering to mediate disputes between worshipers according to Islamic law. Residents of Farmersville last month fought against a Muslim cemetery in their town. Garland was the site of a ādraw Muhammadā contest hosted by anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller that was subsequently attacked by two gunmen inspired by ISIS.” Ahmed’s sister was suspended from the same school.
Mike
1, September 17, 2015 at 2:39 pm
Lisa Nā¦. People like you are how people like Hitler come to power.
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Actually it was not I who brought up Hitler, Mike is right on the mark. Play to someone’s deeply seated prejudices and depend on the ignorance of the masses. People like Lisa N. who also supports Trump fall into this segment of society.
78% of public school teachers are women. Does anyone here think a male shop teacher would have gotten the vapors when he saw this device and screamed for the police? No, he would have said, “Cool dude, how did you solder those 2 small connections?”
And BitchinDog aptly confirming my observation. Doggy’s intellect far above the run of the mill historian.
BitchinDog
1, September 17, 2015 at 3:13 pm
“The 1933 Parallels are worth discussing. In 1933 some folks burned down the German Reichstag (Parliament bldg). The next day President von Hindenburg issued the Reichstag Fire Decree. That Decree removed all civil rights and liberty protections in German so that they could go catch the Communists who burned the Reichstag. A parallel occurence was the Twin Towers and Pentagon event on 9/11. The Congress issued The Patriot Act. Same thing.”
Trump=Hitler stated @ 3PM. No surprise on who wins the Godwin Law contest. LOL!
Young Ahmed says he’ll be changing schools, can’t say I blame him.
https://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/16/irving-police-drop-charges-against-muslim-student/
“”I’m the person that built a clock and got in a lot of trouble for it,” said Ahmed, who built the clock to impress one of his teachers. “When I showed it to her, she thought that it was a threat to her. It’s really sad that she took a wrong impression of it and I got arrested for it later that day…I’m thinking about transferring schools.””
the clock was in a PENCIL BOX
LOL…Ok so an itty bitty…. possible bomb. I agree….over reaction but still given the circumstances and possibility of a real threat, they would have been negligent to not do some investigation. They went over the top.
And how is Aspergers syndrome relevant?
It is relevant because people with Asperger’s tend to not be as clued into the social niceties or able to relate to how their actions are affecting other people. Often that feed back loop to understand how others think or feel is missing in their brains. They are very absorbed in their activity, hobby. Sometimes obsessively so and as such may not be thinking through the ramifications of their actions. Nothing wrong with it and they can’t really help it unless they get some outside guidance, perhaps from parents.
I don’t know if this young man has the syndrome, but it does seem likely from my personal experiences with people who are on the sliding scale of Asperger’s Syndrome.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zVIc64naL.jpg
Am late to the party but ….
Had it been a bomb, there would be dozens of dead and wounded. Given the daily reports of school shootings, police assassinations, and wacko revenge hits, people, especially schools are rightfully afraid of being the next mass murder crime scene. Yes, the police overreacted. Maybe they profiled the kid (a bit). But a simple, sincere apology and a shared ice cream store run will get everyone back to a more normal state of paranoia.
Next time a kid goes on a killing rampage at school and the nation asks “how did we not see this coming from this troubled kid?”, we’ll all hope that someone would have overreacted sooner.
Chill, people. Good folk sometimes mess up while trying to be good folk.
Steve H – your solution is workable if they had not interrogated without his parents or a guardian, cuffed him, taken him to juvie and finger printed and photographed him. And he is too old for ice cream.
This should have been shut down before it left the school.
DBQ, the confusion is not real. Evidently, the clock was in a PENCIL BOX, not a suitcase. The size of the electric plug gives you an idea of scale.
I don’t fault the teacher for being on the safe side by reporting this kid. But what excuse is there for the administrators and especially the police for this thing to continue to snowball?
And how is Aspergers syndrome relevant?
http://iotwreportcom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rzqZ5y4.jpg
The confusion is real. The threats are also real. If we don’t take all precautions we are not doing our duty. The teacher may have over reacted….this time. The next time it may not be just a clock. I would hope that the administration and the teachers could find a middle ground between freak out and ignore the threat.
Unfortunately, this kid and his parents didn’t think through the consequences of bringing a mystery electronic device to school in these times when terrorists are blowing up people with kitchen appliances, pressure cookers.
He should have notified the administration at the school that he was bringing in his invention and gotten clearance (Clarence). Then there would have been no big hoo hah about it.
Sometimes people with Aspergers syndrome do not have the critical thinking skills that they need to navigate through life. Smart in many ways and not so much in others.
davidm said:
“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?”
fiver, there’s that irony again.
The 1933 Parallels are worth discussing. In 1933 some folks burned down the German Reichstag (Parliament bldg). The next day President von Hindenburg issued the Reichstag Fire Decree. That Decree removed all civil rights and liberty protections in German so that they could go catch the Communists who burned the Reichstag. A parallel occurence was the Twin Towers and Pentagon event on 9/11. The Congress issued The Patriot Act. Same thing.
Lisa is a product of 9/11 and perhaps oxycotton.
BitchinDog – there was only one Communist arson of the Reichstag..
in college a couple of engineering buddies of mine used to make, um, “devices” for fun, during the summertime. it’s not an unknown pastime. I don’t think it was unjustified of the teachers to show some concern over this thing.
high schools go apesh*t over really piddly stuff these days. it’s not a racial issue at all.
Hitler played to the underlying prejudices of the German people, do does Trump, so does xenophobia and Islamophobia. Why not be aware of real dangers instead of inventing them?
@Annie: ” Why not be aware of real dangers instead of inventing them?”
One of the oldest aphorisms regarding war is ‘know your enemy’.
Hypervigilance does not reflect true situational awareness but is rather the attitude of those who are damaged and inefficient. Those who cannot make reasonable distinctions between threats and ordinary events do not make us safer. The distract us, dissipate our limited resources, an alienate those who should be our allies.
There are real dangers in the world today. Those who preach that we can know the enemy by the color of their skin, shame our values, damage our efforts to keep our families safe and sometimes create enemies where there were none before.
Someone here offered the advice ‘get a clue’. I think that is worthwhile advice for all who think it takes 5 hours of interrogation to determine that a school boys science project is only a clock.
can, not van