Teen brings homemade clock to school, gets arrested

Mohamed, a student at MacArthur High School in Irving, Tex., brought the clock in Monday to show his engineering teacher, UPI reported. While the teacher said he liked it, he advised Mohamed not to show it to any other teachers.

Mohamed put the clock in his bag, but it began beeping while he sat in his English class. The teacher asked him to show it to her. She said it looked like a bomb, and soon Mohamed was pulled out of class and spoke with the school’s principal and five police officers.

The police officers thought it looked like a bomb, and Mohamed was subsequently arrested and sent to juvenile detention. However, Irving police later confirmed Mohamed will not be charged with anything.

Irving’s police chief called it a “naive incident” and believes the case is closed, saying the department believes the clock doesn’t look like a bomb.

This photo received September 16, 2015 courtesy of the Irving Police Department in Irving, Texas shows a hand made clock made by teenager Ahmed Mohamed

Irving Police Department/AFP

Some believe the arrest happened in part because Mohamed is a Muslim — the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced it was investigating the incident and said it likely wouldn’t have happened if the student wasn’t named Ahmed Mohamed.

Beth van Duyne, mayor of Irving, defended the actions of the school and police, saying “an abundance of caution” was needed to ensure the safety of the school and students. She added, however, that she would have been upset if the same thing happened to her child.

The Mohamed residence quickly became a media hub, Dallas News reported. The family was reportedly overwhelmed by online support, including the creation of the Twitter account @IStandWithAhmed, which as of this writing has approximately 31,400 followers.

Mohamed also got support from some high-profile names. Mark Zuckerberg invited Mohamed to visit Facebook, The family also was invited to visit Google and received multiple invitations to study in other cities.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield invited Mohamed to Toronto:

Hi IStandWithAhmed ! I'd love you to join us for our science show Generator in Toronto on 28 Oct. There’s a ticket waiting for you.

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) September 16, 2015

Even the president of the United States got in on the action:

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.

— President Obama (@POTUS) September 16, 2015