Irving 9th-grader arrested after taking homemade clock to school: 'So you tried to make a bomb?'

[TexasTowelie]

IRVING — Ahmed Mohamed — who makes his own radios and repairs his own go-kart — hoped to impress his teachers when he brought a homemade clock to MacArthur High on Monday.

Instead, the school phoned police about Ahmed’s circuit-stuffed pencil case.

So the 14-year-old missed the student council meeting and took a trip in handcuffs to juvenile detention. His clock now sits in an evidence room. Police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb — though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it’s a clock.

In the meantime, Ahmed’s been suspended, his father is upset and the Council on American-Islamic Relations is once again eyeing claims of Islamophobia in Irving.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-9th-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school-so-you-tried-to-make-a-bomb.ece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=3mW4w0Y1OXE

[PatrickforO]

1. We can forget about any common sense or common decency in the K-12 system.

For the foreseeable future.

[tblue37]

2. K&R for visibility. nt

[KT2000]

3. disgusting

he should have been congratulated for his accomplishment. These people are nuts.
Get this young genius out of Irving Texas and into a private school with a good engineering program - send the bill to Irving School District.

[Enthusiast]

4. Kicked and recommended!

Islamophobia and ignorance.

[hobbit709]

5. Critical thinking is in short supply in our school systems.

I'd say the kid is smarter than anyone in either the school administration or the PD.

[TexasTowelie]

6. I will agree with you.

The engineering class teacher should have either called the student's parents or kept the clock in his classroom since he had sufficient reason to know that it would be suspicious if other students or school officials saw the device. However, the police spokesman did make the remark that it was reasonable for someone to suspect that it was a bomb so I can't really blame an English teacher or the other school officials on that one. I doubt that the police that they sent to the campus really knew much better either.

Did they have profile the student because of his Muslim name? Probably, but these days I would be just as suspicious if the student looked like he was a white supremacist with a buzz cut. Were the racial tensions in Irving also a factor? Probably.

It's unfortunate that the student was harassed and arrested, but the world is changed and 14-year-old boys cannot be viewed with the same amount of innocence or given the benefit of the doubt like when we were young.

[hobbit709]

7. When I was that age I was building all sorts of electronic gadgets and bringing them to school.

But that was in a time before screaming paranoia took over. A moment of rational thinking on the part of ANY adult involved would have solved this but instead it was a "It's got a digital readout-it's got to be a BOMB!!!" reaction.

Why build a timer when you can buy one ready made for under $5?

[alcina]

8. You can show your support on Twitter

https://twitter.com/IStandWithAhmed

Aside from that, I'm speechless....