Charges Dropped Against 14-Year-Old High School Student Ahmed Mohamed After His Arrest For Bringing A Homemade Clock To School That Was Mistaken For A ‘Fake Bomb’
14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was apprehended by local police in Irving, Texas on Monday after he brought to school a homemade clock that was mistaken for a bomb.
Ahmed Mohamed went to school on Monday bringing with him a digital clock he made from a pencil case. While the 14-year-old MacArthur High School freshman was excited to show his homemade clock to his professor, he was instead handcuffed and pulled out of school as officials thought the clock was a "hoax bomb".
"I built a clock to impress my teacher but when I showed it to her she thought it was a threat to her," says Ahmed, according to a report published Wednesday on BBC News. "I'm very sad that she got the wrong impression of it."
He goes on, "They arrested me and they told me that I committed the crime of a hoax bomb, a fake bomb."
Washington Post noted on the same day that "the incident has triggered allegations of racism." However, the police authorities from the Irving Police Department denied the claims.
"We have always had an outstanding relationship with the Muslim community," says police chief Larry Boyd. "Incidents like this present challenges. We want to learn how we can move forward and turn this into a positive."
Meanwhile, authorities announced that they will not press charges against Ahmed since it was found out that Ahmed's invention bears no threat.
Ahmed says he is happy that the charges against him were dropped despite not receiving an apology from the police authorities who arrested him.
Thousands of netizens reacted over the incident, with people showing support for the misjudged 14-year-old. Twitter users are using the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed to show their support for Ahmed, who dreams of becoming an engineer.
The incident has also caught the attention of US President Barrack Obama and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Obama 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."
Zuckerberg said, "Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest."
On the other hand, Ahmed is not certain whether he will go back to school after his three-day suspension ends on Thursday, his father said.
The teen's father tells CNN, "Right now he is trying to just stay positive and is listening to the news about him and reading about people's comments [on] him on social media. It's really too much for him to take in right now, but long term it will be good for him. He doesn't want to show he is a victim."
