Welcome to Texas, Ahmed. It’s About Time.
High school in Irving, Texas, is not Intelligence Central. And you know that because a science teacher at that school didn’t know the difference between a digital clock and a bomb.
A ninth grader with an interest in electronics made a homemade clock and brought it to school, proudly showing it to his engineering teacher who told him, “Don’t show that to anyone else.” Apparently, time stands still in Irving, Texas, and they like it that way.
The clock’s alarm went off during another class and – ah ha – that teacher discovered the magic of time. And thought it was a bomb.
Ahmed Mohamed told the teacher it was a homemade digital clock. He kept repeating that after the police were called, interrogated him and marched him out in handcuffs in front of other students. He missed his student council meeting.
They led Ahmed into a room where four other police officers waited. He said an officer he’d never seen before leaned back in his chair and remarked: “Yup. That’s who I thought it was.”
The police claimed it looked like “a movie bomb” because everything they know about science, they learned from a Bruce Willis movie.
They’re still investigating the case, and Ahmed hasn’t been back to school. His family said the principal suspended him for three days.
Yes, suspended for being smart. By the way, he was charged with making a fake bomb, or as it is more commonly known, not a bomb.
Thanks to everybody for the heads up.
Or, as Rick Perry said: “Even a fake bomb goes off once a day.”
11) I thought it was cool that he was arrested for an engineering accomplishment while wearing a NASA t-shirt.
2) If the school REALLY thought it was a bomb, why didn’t they evacuate the bldg immediately? Oh wait….no, they didn’t. What’s also REALLY telling is that the parents of kids who were there aren’t raising hell about this. Maybe it’s because they know the “bomb threat” wasn’t the real reason?
3) His college education will be paid for before this is done.
2You can let this genius principal know what you think by emailing him at: dacummings@irvingisd.net
Here’s what I sent him regarding his handling of the Ahmed Mohamed fiasco:
If the your actions as reported in the news media with respect to this student are even half-true, you should be relieved of your position as principal of MacArthur High School.
Your behavior has given the lie to the statements in your welcome letter to students and parents:
“Our mission at MacArthur High School is to meet the needs of culturally diverse students who will be equipped to become productive citizens and critical thinkers in a global society.”
“One of our goals for the 2015-16 school year is to see that the parents and guardians of students -like the students themselves – feel at home at MacArthur.”
… And then your response to an enterprising and creative student with no harmful intent is to have him arrested and then suspend him for three days?
The only leg you have to stand on for your response appears on page 6 of your school’s Student Code of Conduct, listing “Possession of Prohibited Items” – “Any articles not generally considered to be weapons, including school supplies, when the principal or designee determines that a danger exists.”
If you determined that Ahmed’s enterprising clock construction constituted a danger, then truly you are bereft of sufficient common sense to be a high school principal.
President Obama has invited Ahmed to the White House. Maybe he should invite you as well, and you can enlighten Mr. Obama on what a great “critical thinker” you are as a school administrator.
3Back a couple of livetimes ago, a citizen brought a “bomb” to our little PD. They found it “somewheres” and wanted the police to dispose of it. I assured them that disposing of explody things was NOT something I did. At that moment I was introduced to one of the Dallas Sheriff’s Office Ordnance Disposal guys. We located a barren piece of Hunt County, of which there is much, even in the towns, and they sploded the “bomb” in a disappointing puff of smoke.
I can tell then you from my experience, real bombs are dealt with seriously by serious people.
So I guess fake bombs are dealt with frivolously by frivolous people.
4No need to wonder why some people in TX want to succeed from the U.S.
Don’t forget how the AP school curriculum and textbooks were edited to rewrite history and eliminate science.
5I stand corrected: The offended teacher teaches English. That explains why, when the alarm had *already* gone off, the logic of the device being a bomb (the *next* time it goes off???) was… possible? (I don’t mean to insult proper teachers of English, just THAT one)
It is truly wonderful that this most likely will be a WORLD WIDE expose of the kind of foolishness that typifies Fox-style fear-mongering. I am trying to avoid shaming others, but this community deserves a hard set down about how ridiculous their response has been, both for their ignorance in what constitutes a valid threat and in the harshness of their official response.
[Again, I respect teahers of all types, just not the one that sent a kid to suspension for having a home-brew clock]
6If you put that English teacher’s brain in a chihuahua, there’d be room left over for another whole dog. And the pup would spend his whole day barking at the sofa cushion. Of course if you put the principal’s or the cop’s brain in the chihuahua, he’d kill himself trying to eat the sofa cushion. (And I thought MY high school had some dumb teachers!)
7I do believe if we had a republican’t administration this would never have made the news. Ahmed would have been awarded a Caribbean vacation, flown to directly to Guantanamo Bay for an indefinite stay. No publicity on account of national security (Nacht und Nebel).
8If at some future time it were decided to release him, they would bill him for their service.
Thank you, Umpty Dump.
9And whoever saw the letter from the White House, their computer spelling thingie talked about using a “soldier” iron. Sigh. SOLDERING. Surely the powers that be that write those classy letters know the difference between “soldiering” and “soldering”. But I’m really glad they’ve invited Ahmed to hang out at the White House.
Mark Zuckerberg invited Ahmed to visit him at Facebook. Yep, he’s going to the White House. Ahmed is transferring to a less neanderthalic school.
I knew those things before I read this. Why? Because the NBC affiliate in Minneapolis had the story on the late news. Minnesota and the rest of the country is laughing at those Irving jackasses.
10Also, Ahmed has received a full scholarship to Space Camp.
11Let’s see , what location can I name that’s not Texas the next time someone asks me where I live? And since I am also an English major ( oh, horrors! one of those !), I am not sure that I should claim a location anywhere in this entire country since correct word usage and spelling appear to be out of style.
12I am so proud of Ahmed and his family! I wish they were my neighbors. That young man is going to be a wonderful adult, so gifted and so cordial. The fear that distorts the minds of Irving’s teachers and principal at MacArthur HS and the police officers and mayor is a dreadful burden for them to bear. No one should have to live with that kind of fear in their hearts and minds. That kind of fear thrives on ignorance and bigotry, and breeds hatred and violence. As a nation, we cannot afford to sink to that level.
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/16/9338099/ahmed-mohamed-irving-texas-clock
Obama is the man!
13(Actually this is the link to Obama’s reaction).
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/16/9338229/ahmed-mohamed-obama-tweet
14You know, if the idiots at this school and police force had a manual on how to breed hatred and radicalize a young Muslim man, they couldn’t have done a better job. I’m just glad that his story got out, so that he is actually drawing some benefit from this horrible incident.
And I really hope he never gets so much as a citation for jaywalking. Or the wing nuts will be all over how Obama coddled a terrorist.
15I already (the day I first saw this on Twitter) wrote a letter to the editor at the Dallas Morning News, wrote the superintendent of the Irving ISD, and emailed the principal. I had the police chief and Irving’s Barbie-clone mayor the next day but I’m sick and can barely form coherent sentences. Unfortunately, because that mayor deserves a tongue-lashing of epic proportions, as does the police chief.
I did make sure the people I knew in STEM and science fiction fandom knew about this and there’s been support for Ahmed there.
16In this era, they’d have arrested me.
As an art major in 1968 we were studying pointillism and assigned to paint a canvas using the technique. My subject? A Newsweek magazine cover photo of three men who were mimicking the famous ‘see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil’ three wise monkeys.
The day after turning it in I was refused entry into class due to the painting’s subject and sent to the office, accused of being mentally ill then told I was suspended from school and not allowed to return until getting psychiatric clearance. Fury of parents for costing the money to see a shrink made the appointment all the more terrifying since our parents used the threat of being institutionalized at a local asylum during their rage fests.
At the shrink: painting displayed, shrink scowled at me, parents nostrils were flaring. Me: “I needed a model to paint so used mag cover photo.” All three raged at me about lying until I saw stack of Newsweek on his table.
There it was, the “mentally ill” photo. I got a clearance and sent back to the even more furious teacher whether she liked it or not. (For pure spite, I submitted that painting to a statewide competition later. It won and was hung in the state capital building domed lobby for a year which pissed off the teacher even more at the ceremony under the dome…smirk!)
7 Kids Not Named Mohamed Who Brought Homemade Clocks to School And Didn’t Get Arrested
http://gawker.com/7-kids-not-named-mohamed-who-brought-homemade-clocks-to-1730999866
17Please, please — someone from MIT, U Penn, Stamford, etc., get this student out of Texas. He is in mortal and mental danger here and will be an appreciated asset in a foreign state.
18Y’know, I am not a bomb expert. But even a cursory look at the “bomb” in question made me ask: so, if it’s an explosive device, where are the explosives? You know, the C4 or whatever, the part that actually blows up?
The main lesson here: if you are a Muslim, and have a kid you want to send to public school in Texas, name him Fred.
19