#IStandWithAhmed Tells Us Something about Public School

“None of the teachers know what I can do,” said Ahmed Mohamed of Irving, Texas.
Does that sound ominous — or does it sound like any gifted 14-year-old reflecting on his public school environment?
Mohamed is a tinkerer. He makes his own radios and repairs his own go-kart. He has a box of circuit boards at the foot of his bed. In middle school, he belonged to the robotics club, but it’s a new school year, and Ahmed hasn’t yet found a similar niche in high school.
So shortly before bedtime last Sunday, September 13, Ahmed wired a circuit board to a power supply and a digital display, and strapped the result inside a pencil case, hoping to show his engineering teacher what he could do.
Monday morning, his teacher admired Ahmed’s homemade clock. It was hardly his most sophisticated project, but more complex no doubt than anything Ahmed’s peers were doing on their own.
Ahmed’s engineering teacher admired the boy’s handiwork but added, “I would advise you not to show any other teachers.”
So Ahmed followed the advice and kept the clock in his bag — until another teacher complained that it was beeping during a later lesson, and Ahmed made the mistake of showing her his project after class. She told him it looked like a bomb and refused to return it.
A police officer pulled Ahmed out of his sixth-period class and, after questioning him in a schoolroom full of other cops, took him away in handcuffs.
“We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb,” said police spokesman James McLellan. “He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation.”
Why should this kid have to explain a clock?
“It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car,” according to McLellan. “The concern was, what was this thing built for?”
Because Ahmed is Muslim, and because Irving mayor Beth Van Duyne made national news over the summer making what have been generally interpreted as anti-Islamic statements, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has taken note. “This all raises a red flag for us: how Irving’s government entities are operating in the current climate,” said Alia Salem of the council’s North Texas chapter.
McLellan insists that “the reaction would have been the same regardless” of the student’s background, but the council is skeptical. Had a blonde Baptist boy brought a homemade clock to school, would we have heard anything about it?
Maybe not, but Ahmed’s treatment was about more than anti-Islamic hysteria.
“The concern was,” according to the police, “what was this thing built for?”
It was built to tell the time. It was built to impress an engineering teacher. It was built to help a talented boy find a place at his new school where he could fit in.
But it wasn’t assigned. It wasn’t sanctioned. Like Ahmed himself, the jerry-rigged timepiece doesn’t fit the expectations of the local powers that be.
The engineering teacher understood — and he warned Ahmed that no one else would. That tells us everything we need to know about the people responsible for Ahmed’s education.
An earlier version of this article appeared on FEE.org.
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Ken Jons-un September 18, 2015 , 1:36 pm Vote8
Some people are asking why the school wasn’t evacuated and the bomb squad called in, obviously they didn’t see any real concern but found it easy to arrest him.
Blue Square September 18, 2015 , 4:16 pm Vote6
I tend to think of prejudice and arbitrary law enforcement has having a multiplicative effect in terms of bad outcomes.
When the agents of enforcement have wide discretion and little incentive to avoid false positives, they are likely to rely on whatever quick heuristics they have stored in their brains for sorting people (i.e., “People named Mohamed are scary!”)
Properal September 18, 2015 , 4:54 pm
This is so much like the scene in Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem when the protagonist (Equality 7-2521) showed his discovery of electricity to the World Council of Scholars.
Link to Frank Marcopolos (@frankmarcopolos) Reading that section:
https://soundcloud.com/libertydotme/frank-marcopolos-reads-ayn-rands-anthem-part-3-of-4#t=17:55
E-book:
https://liberty.me/library/anthem/
Blue Square September 18, 2015 , 5:43 pm
@mikereid Arg! Now I know BK is going to point out that should have been “e.g.” instead of “i.e.”
Account deleted September 19, 2015 , 8:06 pm Vote6
After listening to last night’s (9/18/15) Free Talk Live, I am convinced that this incident was planned.
marcus little little September 20, 2015 , 2:03 pm Vote4
totally agree. He builds a “clock” that is a circuit board with a bunch of wires and is placed in a briefcase. What do you think would happen if he took this “clock” to the airport? It would be confiscated because it looks like a bomb! This story is suspicious (the story being that an innocent boy is arrested by bigoted racist policemen because he is a Muslim).
Mongo September 20, 2015 , 12:48 am
@reece Did they say anything about his dad being activist in the Muslim community and joked about before he went to school on social media. That’s the only one explanation I haven’t been able to find information on.
Account deleted September 20, 2015 , 12:02 pm Vote3
His father has tried twice to become President of Sudan, and this has all the markings of a political stunt.
Earl Zarbin September 20, 2015 , 2:20 pm Vote2
In This Day and Age…
I think I am a clock,
A bomb could be,
Bringing to school,
Not good for he.
David Fergusson September 21, 2015 , 4:14 am Vote0
A problem may arise as of late,
when dealing with actors of state,
that if you do well,
it may condemn you to Hell,
And stormtroopers smash down your gate
Andy Katherman September 20, 2015 , 5:22 pm Vote2
It’s interesting to note some have presented compelling evidence Ahmed didn’t “invent” any type of clock.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CEmSwJTqpgY
DYN September 20, 2015 , 6:47 pm Vote0
A fairly thorough analysis of the boy’s work, and some interesting commentary on it, can be found here:
http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/
Andy Katherman September 20, 2015 , 7:26 pm Vote0
Don Northam, that is a good one as well. I’m of the opinion that the school and the police handled this poorly especially if he was detained and then asked to speak to his parents while being questioned.
Having said that, I agree with others that this incident is fishy especially if he didn’t “build” anything but rather took apart an old alarm clock and put it in a pencil box.
Properal September 21, 2015 , 2:28 am Vote0
Looking at the picture, I see no breadboard or any indication that anything was modified from a an aready manufatured clock, other than being removed from the origonal case.
Something Clever September 21, 2015 , 6:11 pm Vote0
Does anybody else remember when some poor kid was arrested for Mooninite figures about town?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_Mooninite_panic
That story was way better.
Kirsten Tynan October 1, 2015 , 5:36 pm Vote1
If your main concern is that someone may have used the word “invented” correctly instead of the idiocy of the public schools who would call the police on a kid for bringing a clock to school or the abusiveness of that kid potentially being interrogated by police without access to his parents or legal representation, then you’re doing it wrong.