A ninth-grade Muslim student at #MacArthurHigh in #Irving, #Texas, was arrested and suspended for bringing a homemade digital clock to school that authorities claimed was a #hoaxbomb, according to The Dallas Morning News.
#AhmedMohamed, a 14-year-old aspiring inventor, said he built the device in 20 minutes on Sunday night using a circuit board and power supply wired to a digital clock display, which he put together inside a case with a tiger hologram on the front.
The freshman, who was a member of the robotics club in middle school, took his invention to school the next day hoping to impress his new teachers.
Ahmed says he first showed the clock to his engineering teacher, who advised him not to show it to any other teachers.
He kept the clock in his backpack until the alarm went off during his English class. When he showed it to the English teacher, “She was like, it looks like a bomb,” Ahmed said.
The teacher kept the clock and later that afternoon Ahmed was pulled out of sixth period by the principal and a police officer.
He says he was interrogated by five police officers asking him if he tried to make a bomb, which he repeatedly insisted was just a clock, and threatened with expulsion by Principal #DanielCumming unless he gave a written statement.
Ahmed also said that police told him he couldn’t speak to his parents until after the interrogation was over. He was reportedly taken to a juvenile detention center, where he was fingerprinted before being released.
Ahmed’s father said he believed his son’s arrest was due to anti-Islamic sentiment. But Irving Police Chief #LarryBoyd claims under any other circumstances, the reaction “would have been the same.”
Ahmed described the humiliating experience in a video interview, saying, “It made me feel like I wasn’t human. It made me feel like a criminal.”
He is currently serving a three-day suspension and has vowed never to take an invention to school again.
Police said no charges would be filed against Ahmed and that they were just exercising caution to protect the students.
“The follow-up investigation revealed the device apparently was a homemade experiment, and there’s no evidence to support the perception he intended to create alarm,” Boyd said.
After the story went viral, #PresidentObama showed his support for the youngster with a personal invitation to the White House. He tweeted: “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.”
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