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| Ahmed Mohamed in handcuffs, wearing a NASA t-shirt |
In Texas, innovation is rewarded with handcuffs. After a 14-year-old Muslim student in Irving, Texas brought a homemade digital clock to school, he was detained and suspended because his teacher thought the clock looked like a bomb.
Ahmed Mohamed, an aspiring engineering student, repeatedly clarified that his invention is not a bomb and not intended to look like a bomb. But the teacher and the principal of MacArthur High School remained concerned.
They called police, who questioned Mohamed, handcuffed him and led him out of school. He was then fingerprinted before being released to his family, who say he received a three-day suspension from school.
A photograph from Monday shows Mohamed wearing both a NASA T-shirt and handcuffs as officers escort him through a hallway in Irving, which is about 10 miles west of Dallas.
The police told local media that they were not satisfied with Mohamed’s explanation, although they do not believe the device was a bomb.
“He would simply only tell us that it was a clock,” police spokesman James McLellan says. “He didn’t offer an explanation as to what it was for, why he created this device, why he brought it to school.”
The Irving school district released a statement saying that students and staff are encouraged to report any suspicious behavior.
There are no charges against Mohamed, but his family says the school and police blew the incident out of proportion.
“It made me feel like I wasn’t human,” Mohamed said in a video interview. “It made me feel like a criminal.”
Activists and civil rights organizations believe the student’s religion and ethnic background played a role in the school’s reaction.
“I think this wouldn’t even be a question if his name wasn’t Ahmed Mohamed,” Alia Salem of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations tells local news WFAA. “He is an excited kid who is very bright and wants to share it with his teachers.”
Ahmed was wearing a NASA t-shirt at the time of his detention.
“‘His teacher and school mistook the clock for a bomb.’ Did they mistake his NASA shirt for an ISIS shirt?” wondered law professor Khaled Beydoun in a Facebook post.
President Obama addressed the controversy via Twitter, sending a message of support to Mohamed.
“Cool clock, Ahmed,” the president wrote. “Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.”
The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg also had words of support for Mohamed.
“Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest,” he said. “The future belongs to people like Ahmed. Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you. Keep building.”
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