It’s been a pretty eventful week for 14-year-old high school student Ahmed Mohamed. On Tuesday, he was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, which a teacher and police mistook for a hoax bomb. All charges were eventually dropped.
I expect they will have more to say tomorrow, but Ahmed's sister asked me to share this photo. A NASA shirt! pic.twitter.com/nR4gt992gB
— Anil Dash (@anildash) September 16, 2015
Following the incident, he has received support from around the world, including an invitation from President Barack Obama to visit the White House, an offer to go to the Facebook offices from CEO Mark Zuckerberg and an offer of a tour around his "dream school," the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
You’ve probably seen the story about Ahmed, the 14 year old student in Texas who built a clock and was arrested when he...
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, 16 September 2015
The science community has been vociferous in its support for Ahmed, using the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed on Twitter. Many have suggested the arrest was racially motivated, as he is a Muslim. And others were keen for Ahmed to continue to show such enthusiasm for science – after all, he brought the clock in to show his teacher because he was proud of it. "I took it to school because I wanted to show my teachers the talent that I had," he said.
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
Yesterday, police said that all charges had been dropped against Ahmed, after taking him in for questioning over the clock, which consisted of a circuit board, wires and a digital display. Police had told him it looked "like a movie bomb." One of Ahmed’s teachers had alerted police after it beeped during class, leading him to being handcuffed and put in juvenile detention
In a press conference yesterday, Ahmed revealed he was going to change schools following the incident. And with offers from countless institutions across the U.S. to continue his passion for science, he surely won’t be short of opportunities.
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