Irving 9th-grader arrested after taking homemade clock to school: 'So you tried to make a bomb?'

Well this is just a sad story. I remember messing with electronics as a kid too, and it would seem because this kid is named Mohamed that he is being singled out as a suspected bomb maker for building a freakin clock....he was even in robotics in middle school. This teacher went way outside of her bounds, and the fact the cops showed up and put him in handcuffs is seriously messed up. The kid is 14 and obviously loves building electronics. Seems to me that the school is lacking in programs that allow kids that excel in these areas to continue their education. I hope his parents wise up and put him in a school where he can excel.....he could invent the next big thing!

Sad story this one....

Source

IRVING — Ahmed Mohamed — who makes his own radios and repairs his own go-kart — hoped to impress his teachers when he brought a homemade clock to MacArthur High on Monday.

Instead, the school phoned police about Ahmed’s circuit-stuffed pencil case.


So the 14-year-old missed the student council meeting and took a trip in handcuffs to juvenile detention. His clock now sits in an evidence room. Police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb — though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it’s a clock.

In the meantime, Ahmed’s been suspended, his father is upset and the Council on American-Islamic Relations is once again eyeing claims of Islamophobia in Irving.

And the clock in question:

That is seriously sad. Terrible, shameful.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

How in the bloody hell are we to enrich good works and encourage unique talents of the next generation if the very teachers charged with this task have been sucked in by the propaganda that is all around us. Clearly, some have lost all hope of lateral thought-process and instead overtly display paranoid delusions so far removed from reality that it begs belief.

I swear, bloody Facebook and other mind numbing social media is churning out idiots these days.

"Mohammed - brings clock - therefore terrorist"

Bloody fools.

As a native Texan, I'm not surprised. If you took the plastic case off a TV remote; the authorities would go ape **** and call the bomb squad. "circuit boards and wires" yikes...

originally posted by: Sublimecraft
a reply to: Vasa Croe

How in the bloody hell are we to enrich good works and encourage unique talents of the next generation if the very teachers charged with this task have been sucked in by the propaganda that is all around us. Clearly, some have lost all hope of lateral thought-process and instead overtly display paranoid delusions so far removed from reality that it begs belief.

I swear, bloody Facebook and other mind numbing social media is churning out idiots these days.

"Mohammed - brings clock - therefore terrorist"

Bloody fools.

The fact a teacher that would do this to a kid is even a teacher at all is baffling. To ice the cake, even the cops handcuffed him and are holding his clock as evidence to possible charge him with making a "Hoax" bomb....

Messed up....if this was my kid I would be raising hell all over the place and getting news crews to take notice. Though, my kids all being white and from the US, they would likely have gotten a pat on the back and been told to put it in the next science fair......

originally posted by: olaru12
As a native Texan, I'm not surprised. If you took the plastic case off a TV remote; the authorities would go ape **** and call the bomb squad. "circuit boards and wires" yikes...

Yeah...that is messed up. What do they think is underneath the skin of all the devices they use daily....magic?

Something is to be said about schools teaching electronics/woodworking type classes....real skills that take time to work on and require imagination to do. I hate these things are not offered at most schools anymore.

Yes Martha...the terrorists have indeed won..

a reply to: Vasa Croe



Peace out yo.

So sad.

The genius gets hauled out of school in cuffs while I'm quite sure some Neanderthal football bully gets a free hall pass and a cheerleader.

"This is clearly a clock, madam. You are under arrest for wasting police time and calling in a hoax bomb threat."

Nope. See something, say something. Are people capable of thinking for themselves anymore? She was probably praised for 'doing the right thing' in being completely devoid of grey matter.

originally posted by: SlowNail
"This is clearly a clock, madam. You are under arrest for wasting police time and calling in a hoax bomb threat."

Nope. See something, say something. Are people capable of thinking for themselves anymore? She was probably praised for 'doing the right thing' in being completely devoid of grey matter.

There is an old joke about Texas public schools....

"Dropouts consistently score higher on college entrance exams than graduates with a highschool diploma in Texas"

originally posted by: SlowNail
"This is clearly a clock, madam. You are under arrest for wasting police time and calling in a hoax bomb threat."

Nope. See something, say something. Are people capable of thinking for themselves anymore? She was probably praised for 'doing the right thing' in being completely devoid of grey matter.

It would not surprise me at all if she was told she did the right thing...better safe than use your own brain right? And to think SHE is the one that is supposed to be teaching these kids....

This is sad...but as always, we just learn some of the story...not all of the story.

I read, that the boy's father travels back to Qutar frequently to run for the Presidency (and other offices). I also read that the father IMMEDIATELY contacted CAIR (who then alerted the media).

All that said, we don't know what has gone on w/this kid prior to the clock. Has he made threatening statements, did he comment last Friday (9/11!) in a way that raised the teachers/school administrators suspicions?

Things that first appear so black and white usually end up being various shades of gray. Before dumping on the teacher, the school and the PD how's about we learn more facts (if facts can be released--he is a minor).

Now from the opposite side, what if (supposition here) a genius kid brought in a device...sat in the back of the classroom, took "Ill" went to the nurse, got sent home, and then...

What would be said about the late teacher? The school districts "preparedness" etc...sadly today it is a very different world.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Very disappointing that the school administrators had such a knee-jerk reaction.

This event is going to stick with that kid for his whole life now. What a shame.

Making a digital clock is one of the required projects for students in my local high school's electronics class. What the hell is the matter with that Texas school? They need to evolve!

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I live near and work not far from Irving, heard about this on the news radio this morning on my way to work. Just goes to show you that kids aren't allowed to be creative anymore. (Man I miss my radio shack and heath kit electronics kits as a kid)

Well that's what he gets for being named after the most legendary pedophile in history. If he was named John he would have won a science fair.

This is how low we've gotten. From the reports you could drop any piece of electronics and if it exposes the circuit board they'd think it was a bomb if they didn't see what it was be for or maybe they would still think it was. They might have become that dimwitted by now.

Good thing they don't open up any computers cases in the school, place is crawling with "bombs". One look at my workbench would cause this school staff to faint.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I agree, this is a situation that shows how totalitarian our school system is getting. It must be hard to build a clock and then have everyone keep on insisting that you were trying to build a bomb. Something that should have been rewarded (making a digital clock on one's own initiative, which takes some electronics knowledge) went punished instead. It is an injustice.

This child should have been praised, not handcuffed.

This incident will likely scar this boy mentally and destroy his confidence. Maybe even make him paranoid in the future.

The whole nation seems to be in some kind of paranoid psychosis.

I blame the media and the politicians.