The clock heard around the world

High school freshman Ahmed Mohammed was recently arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school which resembled a homemade bomb. Mohammed, a Muslim American citizen, created a digital clock and brought it to school to show his engineering teacher. Carried in a small metal pencil case, the clock alarmed Mohammed’s English teacher, who continued to call the police. Mohammed was arrested on the charge of a hoax bomb after explaining to police that the clock had no alternative purpose. MacArthur High School refused to apologize and justified this arrest by stating that any suspicious objects or threats should always be reported.

“It’s the school to prison pipeline. Students are considered ‘trouble’ and are sent away to juvenile detention instead of disciplined at school. [Administration] arrest kids so flippantly without ever considering the consequences. I don’t know the demographics of the school, but it seems to be very clear racial profiling. If the student was white, he would probably be praised, not arrested,” senior Gabriela Aklepi said.

The story has since gone viral on Twitter, where users have recently backed Mohammad, using the trending hashtag #IStandWithAhmed to show support. High profile names such as President  Obama, NASA and Hillary Clinton among other names have reached out to Mohammed. The President personally invited Mohammed to the White House and offered him an invitation to a Google science fair. The Texan student also made a recent appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Police decided not to charge Mohamed and determined he posed no threat. The parents of Mohammed have mentioned that he will now be transferring to a private school or home-school setting, due to the incident.