Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old student, was forced out of his Texas school in handcuffs after a teacher called the police, suspicious that a homemade clock he brought to class was a bomb, local media reported Tuesday.
Mohamed, a long-time tech nerd, spent Monday in juvenile detention center where he was being questioned by the police for the homemade clock he brought to school, according to the Dallas Morning News.
His English teacher feared it was a bomb when she first saw it and called for the intervention of the principal and the police. While he was being interrogated by the police, the principal threatened to expel him if he didn’t make a written statement, Mohamed said.
Ahmed's sister told me to post this. Yes this situation is real for those questioning. pic.twitter.com/Oxd0JxUS6O
— Prajwol/Ru (@OfficalPrajwol)
September 16, 2015
Most kids who made a homemade clock in 20 minutes would be hailed as Jimmy Neutron. Muslim Kid? Potential bomb maker. Sad. #IStandWithAhmed
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli)
September 16, 2015
“They were like, ‘So you tried to make a bomb?’” Ahmed told Dallas Morning News.
“I told them no, I was trying to make a clock.”
“He (the officer) said, ‘It looks like a movie bomb to me.’”
The police handcuffed Ahmed and escorted him out of the MacArthur high school in front of his peers with an officer on each arm.
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“He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation,” police spokesman James McLellan told DMN. “It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?”
Ahmed has since been suspended from school for three days while his case is under investigation.
society is teaching a young mind that no matter what he goes to accomplish, people will only see the color of his skin #IStandWithAhmed
— asap jen (@y0jenny)
September 16, 2015
This kid looks like & shares a name with my son. His crime? Nerding While Muslim. http://t.co/jSVAJDLgPH pic.twitter.com/RZKP5EgzyD
— Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed)
September 16, 2015
The criminalization of youth of color begins at any and every age because #InnocenceIsForWhiteChildren.
— Concepción Lara (@lowsell)
August 22, 2015
News about the incident has since gone viral on social media where people have expressed their indignation and solidarity with the high school student under the hashtag “I stand with Ahmed.”
The incident has been called out as Islamophobic by many on social media, claiming that Ahmed was unfairly treated for being brown and Muslim.
“He just wants to invent good things for mankind,” said Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed. “But because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated.”