On Monday, teachers at the Irving Independent School District in Irving, Texas, had police arrest a 14-year-old student named Ahmed Mohamed for bringing to school a simple electronic clock he had built as an engineering project. Police escorted Mohamed out of school in handcuffs — photos of the arrest show him wearing a NASA T-shirt — and accused him of trying to build a bomb.
It wasn’t a bomb, it was a clock. Fourteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed wanted to get noticed by his teachers. He loved robotics club in middle school and was searching for a similar niche in his first few weeks of high school. So, he built a digital clock, and brought it to school. It was a circuit board and power supply connected to a digital display. He showed it to his engineering teacher on Monday. The student picks up the story:
He was like, ‘that’s really nice’…I would advise you not to show any other teachers.’
Then during English class, the clock beeped. The English teacher kept the clock, and during sixth period, Mohamed was pulled out of class by the principal. Here is Mohamed’s story:
They took me to a room…with five officers in which they interrogated me and searched through my stuff and took my tablet and my invention…They were like, ‘So you tried to make a bomb?’ I told them no, I was trying to make a clock. But one cop responded, ‘it looks like a movie bomb to me.’
Mohamed told NBC-Dallas Fort Worth that he was taken to police headquarters, handcuffed and fingerprinted. Then on Wednesday, Irving Police Chief Larry Body said that Mohamed would not be charged with any wrongdoing:
We have no evidence to support that there was an intention to create alarm or cause people to be concerned…
So what have we learned?
• The engineering teacher gave Ahmed good advice: The teacher intuited that the training we now give to school teachers would kick in when a non-engineering teacher saw the clock.
• The English teacher confiscated the clock by picking it up and carrying it to her desk, but the school then waited until the 6th period to interrogate the student.
• Why the delay if they truly thought it was a bomb? Protocol probably prevents you from even touching it, and probably requires immediately calling 911.
• Five cops show up. Sounds like a lot, but they probably have to do that. It’s standard practice in most jurisdictions these days for school incidents because they don’t know the scope of the problem until they investigate.
• They bring the kid in. They know it’s not a bomb, even saying it looked like a movie prop. And unless there are facts not presented in this story, they had no evidence that it was intended to be a “hoax”.
The school principal’s response should be:
Look, I know you meant well, but here’s why you caused alarm. Please learn from it and don’t do it again.
Instead he’s marched off in handcuffs. And later, Ahmed Mohamed was suspended by the school for 3 days for a violation of the school’s conduct policy.
Once you realize that the school personnel didn’t act like people who thought they were in the presence of a bomb, then what was going on? It was something beyond profiling, which would be bad enough. They did this knowing he was innocent. Maybe they feared the reaction of parents when the story got out.
Here’s what parents should tell the school principal:
So a young, smart boy builds a thing most of us wouldn’t even attempt, and shows it off, and you say he should have known better?
Maybe Texans think that such power is not for children, it must be restricted to the great corporations. Lock up the boy wizard before he destroys us all with his magic time telling device!
The saddest part of Ahmed’s story was this line, from Ahmed’s father:
He’s vowed never to take an invention to school again.
We have a massive propaganda effort telling us that many Muslims are trying to do violence in America. It’s not surprising that some of their audience – including principals and police officers – believe this crap and let it affect their judgement.
I cant seem to stay away this week Wrongo. It must be the smell of politics in the Fall air.
I agree that what happened to this boy is tragic. My son has several Muslim friends and they are all smarter than any of the kids I grew up with. Any of them could have built this device. They are also smart enough not to bring something like that to school. That being said…this boy should not have had to endure the embarrassment that he was subjected to.
Here’s where this story is making me upset and curse aloud. We have heard from every corner of the social media and political world about their heated outrage over this incident. The President has gone as far to invite the boy to the White House (good for him). When is the President going to invite ANY of the family members of our law enforcement officers that have been killed on and off duty in the last 90 days? The answer is never. Will CNN be reporting that? No.
Perspective has been lost. How sad for us.
To Little Jimmy: really, is that what annoys you? Do you know that the president sees all manner of US citizens and has brief hand shake opportunities with so many it would make your head spin. Perhaps the president’s efforts will make other teenage Muslims think, ok they don’t all hate me. …. and so, if they troll social media and see some other Muslim ask them to join the fight, they will pass. As to police, sorry, they are killed all the time, but less in recent years – so what is your point? That the president must anticipate the giant chip on your collective right wing shoulders?
By the way, that you think the Muslim boys are smarter than the kids you grew up with suggests that you are, in the end, another stupid right wing bigot. I never think that anyone is smarter than the folks I grew up with – a mix of white ethnics, Poles, Italian, Jews, Irish.
Terry,
I appreciate your constructive criticism. I am saddened by your Trump-like response to a differing point of view. Name calling and belittling language are beneath you Terry. Rise to the conversation.
I pointed out the Muslim boys to connect it to the story. If you knew me I think “bigot” would not be a word you would use to describe me or my actions. The town that I live in has two mosques, three RC churches and two Temples. This is as diverse as it gets. The honors classes here are made mostly up of Asian children. I would know because both of my children are in them. And they are all smarter than the burn-outs I associated with. I applaud the work ethic and push my kids in that direction.
I’m sure the President is a busy man. My observation is that neither he nor anyone on his staff can find the time to attend the funeral of a police officer that was targeted and killed, in an execution style, while off duty. As matter of fact, they didn’t even condemn the behavior.
All of that being said, I am simply pointing out that the reaction to a boy being wrongly accused and embarrassed is getting better press than our cops getting killed. Our perspective as a society has been lost.