DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Muslim teen Ahmed Mohamed creates clock, shows teachers, gets arrested

Because Zero Tolerance.

Could have been avoided if any ONE person involved used some simple common sense.

I understand a lot of what you are saying, and to a degree, I agree with a lot of it.

However, look at the picture. To my old eyes, it appears to be sitting in a briefcase type thing. Who makes a clock out of a brief case?

I see wiring, computer board.....but no where do I see the time.

Imagine him taking that to the airport for a flight. What do you think happens to him?

Imagine him on a school trip in DC, trying to get into the Whitehouse carrying that, so he can show the president? Imagine it's my white, blond haired blue eyed daughter doing that. The treatment she'd get at the airport, or the whitehouse (even if Bush was president) would be: Stop! Put it down, NOW!!

Having the courtesy of hindsight - KNOWING now that it was a clock - is not something afforded at the instant the clock was shown. (to a science teacher, not an engineering teacher)

Plus, the stupid thing started beeping in class - THAT is what caused the problem. Imagine a teacher, teaching, and hearing a beeping sound. Teacher asks "what is doing that?" Kid says "oh, it's my clock. Check it out."

And then the teacher sees what he/she is told is a clock - and look at the picture again - tell me you, as a human, wouldn't think "Huh?"

Now, cuff him, arrest him, etc, is/was overboard, of course. But to detain him until the device was deemed "safe" probably wasn't over kill.

There's not 1 bit of photographic evidence that I have seen that says "yup, that's a clock".

The cops can't even determine at a moments notice what the device is. Which side should they error on?

And like I said, cuffing and stuffing, arresting and trying to get him to say it was a bomb, was wrong. But questioning him was not wrong. JMO.

Questioning him without his parents is absolutely wrong.

Also, you went through a lot of what if scenarios. But it's irrelevant, because it's a 14 year old kid at school.

How many Muslim attacks have happened here at schools in America?

Now how many white kids do we have shooting up schools? Or black kids? Or Hispanics?

People wanna dance around the issue, but the reality is that if this kid was any other common race or religion at this school, this wouldn't even had made the news.

They got the kid straight up cause he was Muslim.

This may help.

It was a pencil case (8.25 x 5 x 2.5), Similar to the one I added below. The RED square is an LED display, with 4 digit positions.

I have to wonder if people have never seen a digital clock on this forum. It's quite surprising that so many can see a digital clock and automatically think it was from Escape from New York.

While I don't want to look too much into that, but it does make me ponder about certain posters and their grasp of reality.

I know, but man. . . .

I disagree.

Yes, it made the news because he's (apparently?) muslim. Had it been a white kid, same thing would've happened - but it wouldn't have made the news. So, yeah, you're right.

Yup, that helps as far as size.

http://www.cnet.com/news/13-year-old-builds-working-nuclear-fusion-reactor/

white kid literally does a project on nuclear fusion that's supported by the school.

I'm tellin you man, everybody wants to act like there isn't an elephant in the room.

Yeah, not only is it super obvious that it's a clock. A policeman even said, "Exactly who I thought it was" or something like that when the kid was brought in. To pretend that there's no religious/racial undertones is pretty willfully ignorant.

Did you even read it?

Let's look at the differences, ok?

A kid shows up at school with what appears to be a bomb, to the naked eye. He says it's a clock. Cops are called and react. Turns out it WAS a clock.

Other kid works AT school after hours, supervised, with the school knowing exactly what the kid is working on.


Now, had the second kid done all that work at home, then took it into the school and said "this little puppy right here is capable of nuclear fusion" my guess is authorities get called.





Quit putting race into anything and everything. The first kid didn't get in trouble because of his race or his religion - ANY kid would have been questioned in that scenario.

Now, had the first kid made that clock at school, supervised, there is literally no story. Period.

See the difference? Or is race blinding you?

As someone who has been an on-scene commander for bomb threats/suspicious packages, this story seems even more ridiculous after reading it for the third time. If the police thought it was a real device they would have evacuated the school and called in EOD/bomb squad. Then it becomes a waiting game for EOD to determine if it is indeed a real device.

"Yes sir.... It's my clock in a box."

Yes, I did read it. Let's look at the differences.

A very obvious clock was built by Ahmed. He said it was a clock the entire time. Despite the facts people who confuse MacGyver episodes and real life, believe this to be an actual bomb. They then admit that they suspected that the Muslim kid would bring a bomb to school.

A white child approaches the school about building a very dangerous weapon and energy product. The school supports the kid (as they should) and lets them build a very dangerous experiment (as they should). They have absolutely no real guidance to this kid or his project (They give financial support and an Early Education major oversaw him prepare a nuclear device). The police were not called.

Weird how they gave this white kid the benefit of the doubt over a very dangerous (But extremely educational) device over a muslim kid bringing in a clock.

Race is clearly involved in this. But since you'll ignore this here's 7 more cases you can ignore. http://gawker.com/7-kids-not-named-mohamed-who-brought-homemade-clocks-to-1730999866

BS....He had shown it to his teacher in an earlier class. It was a school project assignment. The teacher knew what he was doing and what he had. This was prejudice knee jerk reactions plain and simple.

Thanks for covering a part I missed!

Aside from the 7th example, I see no similarities in any of the other 6 examples. You're reaching. (and the 7th one was a dangerous/could have been dangerous - situation.)

However, in your link, could you explain this? From the original article in this thread, the father of Ahmed says this:

"I asked if I could see the thing they were calling a bomb. The police never let me even see it but I knew what my son brought to school. It was an alarm clock that he made. He wakes up with it most mornings. ..."

Okay, so he uses it most mornings to wake up. Cool

From your link: " Ahmed Mohamed brought a homemade clock with him to MacArthur High Monday morning, which he’d assembled before bed the night before."


Weird. Dad insinuates the kid has had the clock for weeks, months - other story says the kid just made the clock the night before. Odd. Journalism at its finest, eh?

Regardless, the kid didn't get in trouble because of his race or religion. He got in trouble because he brought what certainly appeared what could have been a bomb, to school.

But really, in your link, geez man, the other 6 examples are just pathetic if your attempt is to say they didn't get arrested because they're white.

Pathetic.

I'm glad I don't have a chip on my shoulder like you seem to.

And what did the first teacher tell the kid?

Thanks in advance.

+1. This. SO many times over. They never thought it was a bomb. Ever. if they did, as you said, an evacuation would have occurred.

So we have, morons who thought they had a bomb on school property, that didn't evacuate the school...

The police were even debating for awhile to charge the kid with having a hoax bomb, despite the fact he never said he had a bomb and that they never viewed it as a bomb enough to warrant an evacuation. Had this not gone viral, he probably would have been charged and had his life ruined.

So many wrong things happened in this situation, and I'm glad the kid is getting support from some great places.

Please join the modern times Texas, please...

told you man, people don't wanna address the elephant in the room.

Arch is doing spin moves like he's in the NFL.

It seems like you do. You keep saying the clock looks like a bomb, when you can see the digital display. It's pretty obvious that it's a clock.

To us the clock is clearly a clock. It's very obvious. If you've ever looked at something with a digital display you could tell that it was just a clock. It's not something we're experts about, but we know it was a clock. Again, it is very obvious. It obvious to such a point that the only way one could think it wasn't a clock is if they had some bias they were trying to prove. Considering the policemen made some pretty veiled comments that he suspected the kid based on him being a muslim is pretty telling. Again, I'd like to point out that it's obviously a clock and in no way a bomb. It is super obvious that it's a clock.

CHS, you seen the letter the principal issued to the parents of all the students there?

lol....

It's probably a Muslim elephant.

I think the school and the Police both knew they had egg on their face and tried to "reach" by trying to get this young man to admit to a hoax bomb. If I were the parents I would sue both the school and the Police. It's pretty obvious they both mishandled this situation. A decent attorney would eat this up.

The kid posted a picture on social media of him and his family all smiles and "thumbs up" in the car with the caption... "On my way to see the lawyer"...

See, he is an American, it took him less than 48 hours to realize this is his meal ticket.

Some see it as a meal ticket, yet in some cases it's justice.

The way this kid was handled, this sounds like justice to me.

If the ChiefOfPolice had it his way he could have gotten 10-15 yrs and three squares a day for his meal ticket.

I don't believe it was racially motivated, as much as it was stupidity motivated on the part of the authorities.

There have been many stories in recent years of stupidity of school authorities when it comes to handling cases such as this where some simple common sense could have prevented a whole lot of hub-bub.

Initially I could understand some getting concerned upon first glance, but once it is looked at and determined it is exactly what the kid claimed it to be, it should have ended right then and there, and everyone should have gone on with their day.

But then you have the other side of this, where things happen as they should have, and you get a whole bunch of parents calling and showing up to the school complaining that the school didn't do due diligence in protecting their kids from what could have been a real bomb.

Can't lie, I laughed out loud on this one.

How much justice? $3 million? $4 million? $10 million?

I would say the way this entire thing unfolded, calling the school was exactly be what I would be doing. Going to school board meetings too.

If they had any real belief this was a bomb, why wasn't the school evacuated?

If they didn't really believe it was a bomb, what possible right did they have to treat a student this way?

They can't have it both ways.

I have no idea. That's for courts and juries to decide. Do you think people should just suck it up and take it no matter how they're treated?

Really wish you guys wouldn't do that-those things are expensive.

Actually you can get a SURE SM-58, stand and chord all for less than $150. Closer to $100 actually.

Not chump change, but great quality for a pretty good price.

That is a good deal!

Why didn't he just buy a clock?



That don't look like any clock I've ever seen! It really does look like it could be a briefcase bomb.

I would deport him. He's just too risky.

Okay, I'm gonna watch some football.

I found this part interesting...

Ahmed's father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, who immigrated from Sudan and has twice run for that country's presidency, told CNN Wednesday that he was upset the school did not contact him immediately to tell him about the situation.

Nope, I think the kid should get $1000 and an apology letter for scaring him for a few hours.