Texan Mosaic

by:SARA MARSHALL/Photo Editor

After two months of media craze, Ahmed Mohamed’s clock story is still gaining ground in media and among social justice advocates.

The 14-year-old freshman at MacArthur High in Irving, Texas was arrested on Sept. 14, 2015 for building a clock, which was assumed by school administrators to be a bomb.

Mohamed had claimed to have ‘built’ his homemade clock to show one of his teachers his inventiveness. But he did not build or invent a clock, nor did it look like a typical clock. His clock was constructed from the electrical work of an every-day digital clock and a brief case, which sounds very bomb-like.

When he pulled out the brief case in his English class, the teacher realized it looked like a bomb and confiscated the device. The principal proceeded to call Mohamed to the office, where he was then placed in handcuffs and taken into police custody for bringing a device that resembled a bomb to school. He then went to juvenile detention and was suspended from school for three days.

The news of Mohamed’s arrest was buzzing around every outlet of social media mere hours after the events happened.

Many social justice advocates have claimed this act was unjustified because it was simply ‘just a clock,’ and that he was racially and religiously profiled. But I do not believe this to be true.

Yes, Mohamed is a darker-skinned, Muslim boy, but that does not make him any more likely to build a bomb than any other teenager. Being Muslim may have played a partial role in them suspecting him of making a possible bomb, but I do not blame the administration and officials by reacting the way they did whatsoever, due to everything that is happening in today’s world. With terrorist attacks occurring around the world on a daily basis, and children and teenagers being convinced to join extremist groups, I feel safer knowing that someone takes a possible threat like a homemade bomb seriously.

Although, the whole situation could have been dealt with in a more diplomatic manner, I believe the school administrators were justified in suspecting Mohamed of building a homemade bomb. By detaining the boy and confiscating the clock, school administrators and police officials were able to further ascertain the situation and determine if the threat was real. This is, in fact, their job, to ensure the safety of the school and those inside.

Today, social justice warriors are all too ready to cry wolf and demand compensation for Mohamed’s seemingly wrongful detainment. But it solves nothing. Next time a student brings a homemade clock onto a campus and it turns out to actually be a bomb, I’d rather school officials be aware of the dangers and take the proper steps to avoid an incident.