Ahmed Mohamed, a 14 year old aspiring engineer, was arrested earlier this month in Texas after bringing a homemade clock to school. His aim was to impress his teacher, but the teacher took it and saw it as a threat. He was arrested for committing the crime of a hoax bomb.
Mohamed was suspended for a couple of days and is thinking about transferring to a different high school.
The school and school district are not releasing any information until the family gives written permission that allows them to discuss the situation as a whole. But, the school is stating that they were following their code of conduct.
On their administrative end, that is understandable as they do not want to put other students in danger or even ignore a situation that could potentially be very serious.
Yet, Texas law states that a person who commits a hoax bomb offense is one who “knowingly manufactures, sells, purchases, transports, or possesses a hoax bomb with intent to use” or intentionally causes alarm or reaction.
Yet, Mohamed does not seem to necessarily fit this description.
His intentions were not seen clearly by the administration.
This is when we should begin to speculate as to how exactly a freshman in high school can be questioned and taken to a police station on this level of degree over a clock?
I could understand that an individual of his age could be capable of doing such atrocities, but if he claims for it to be a clock, why was there so much doubt that they had to call in the police?
Mohamed repeatedly would state it was only a clock he had made on his own time at home.
The family claims the situation is a case of Islamaphobia and profiling.
I stand with the Mohamed family on their argument.
Some people in this country, post 9-11, have a misconception of Muslim individuals and their affiliations.
More specifically, if they have anti-American views or are terrorists.
If this were to be the reasoning behind the judgment of the teacher and administration at the high school then they need to understand that not all individuals who are of a certain group exemplify traits that have been shown previously by other individuals of the same group.
Hence, in this case, following this idea that not all Muslims are terrorists.
Social media responded rapidly on this case as the hashtag “I Stand With Ahmed” made it onto more than 100,000 tweets.
One of these tweets were from President Obama as he stated, “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.”
I find it extraordinary that the President noticed the affect the situation could have on Mohamed since his goal was to show his advanced STEM skills and they were stepped all over with acquisitions that he did not expect to come across when he walked into school that day.
It would make a strong commentary if Mohamed were to not go back to his high school and transfer as it will show his family and himself are not going to put up with profiling and the unfair and inaccurate judgment that they experienced.