Student builds clock is cuffed for bomb hoax,invited to White House

mangaloretoday.com

Texas,USA, Sept 16:  A high school student in Texas whose hobby is inventing thought he had a great idea for a project: to build his own clock.

The effort landed him in handcuffs and juvenile detention Monday, accused of making a hoax bomb.

The detention of Ahmed Mohamed, 14, a student at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, near Dallas, generated a national furor even after the police said Wednesday that he would not be charged as questions arose about whether he was targeted because of his religion.

 

The episode even came to the attention of the nation’s top leaders, who deplored the treatment of the young man. "Cool clock, Ahmed," President Barack Obama said on Twitter. "Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great."

Obama’s staff went on to invite Ahmed to come to the White House for Astronomy Night, to be held Oct. 19, an event bringing together scientists, engineers, astronauts, teachers and students to spend an evening stargazing from the South Lawn. The president’s spokesman held out the encounter as a case study in unreasoned prejudice in an era when the country is fighting Islamic terrorism at home and in the Middle East.

Ahmed said Wednesday he was considering transferring out of MacArthur High and had indeed accepted Obama’s invitation.

"This episode is a good illustration of how pernicious stereotypes can prevent even good-hearted people who have dedicated their lives to educating young people from doing the good work that they set out to do," said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary.

Ahmed said he brought the clock, which he had fashioned with a digital face in an inexpensive box, to school Monday to show to an engineering teacher, who said it was "nice" but then told him that he should not show the invention to other teachers.

But when it beeped during an English class, Ahmed revealed the device to his English teacher, according to an account in The Dallas Morning News. "She was like, it looks like a bomb," he said.

Ahmed was eventually taken from school by the police.

On Wednesday, the Irving police chief, Larry Boyd, said the police were justified in detaining the teenager based on the information they had at the time, when initially it was "not immediately evident that it was the experiment."