“Cool clock, Ahmed”, Obama tweeted about Ahmed Mohamed, 14. Mohammed was detained after a high school teacher falsely concluded that a homemade clock he brought to class might be a bomb.
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On Wednesday, 16 September, the arrest of the teenager was ridiculed on social media after staff at the school mistook the clock for a bomb and summoned the police.
Ahmed was handcuffed and taken to a juvenile facility without his parents’ knowledge.
Irving’s police chief announced on Wednesday that charges won’t be filed against Ahmed however he was suspended from school for three days and the school have defended that position. “We want to learn how we can move forward and turn into a positive”.
“Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest”, he wrote on his Facebook page.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest addressed the controversy during a briefing Wednesday and said Mohamed has been invited to the White House for an astronomy night.
But the White House said the boy was “failed” by his Texas teachers.
The Council On American-Islamic Relations says it is investigating the incident. He had built the alarm clock at home and planned to show it to an engineering teacher, The New York Times reports.
“We live in an age where you can’t take things like that to school”, he said.
Obama wasn’t alone. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the account for Google’s online global science competition both sent invites to Ahmed, showing their support for his interest in technology.
And while many rallied around the bright young mind, many on Twitter used the arrest to showcase America’s deep-rooted racial issues.
According to the BBC, his father Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed who is from Sudan, added: “He’s a very smart, brilliant boy and he said he just wanted to show himself to the world”.
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Later in the day, the principal and a police officer removed Mohamed from class. He was questioned and his belongings were searched.
