(Reuters) — A Texas teenager was taken away from school in handcuffs after he brought a homemade clock to his Dallas-area school this week and the staff mistook it for a bomb, police said on Wednesday (September 16).
Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was accused of making a hoax bomb. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said he is Muslim and the case serves as an example of religious bigotry.
“I took it to school just to show my teachers, just this talent that I have, I wanted to show them and in my perspective it didn’t look like a bomb,” Mohamed, a student at MacArthur High School in the suburb of Irving, told NBC News.
A teacher notified officials about the device.
A spokeswoman for the Irving Independent School District said at a news conference that school officials could not discuss the matter to protect the student’s privacy. Police said no charges have been filed and they consider the case closed.
Mohamed, wearing a NASA T-shirt, was handcuffed and taken to a detention center where he was fingerprinted and had mug shots taken. He was freed when his parents came for him.
The Dallas Morning News reported Mohamed has been suspended from school for three days.
Police said the device was in a case and could be mistaken for a bomb.
“The student would only say that it was a clock and was not forthcoming at that time about any other details. Having no other information to go on and taking into consideration the device’s suspicious appearance and the safety of the students and the staff at MacArthur High School, the student was taken into custody for possession of a hoax bomb,” Chief Larry Boyd of the Irving Police Department told NBC News.
The incident has launched a social media campaign called #IStandWithAhmed, which was the No. 1 trending topic in the United States on Twitter on Wednesday with about 300,000 tweets, many critical of the school district and police.
U.S. President Barack Obama even tweeted about the incident saying, “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House?”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest confirmed Mohamed had been invited to attend an astronomy event at the White House next month, telling reporters the incident could serve as a “teachable moment.”
