The father of Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old Muslim student arrested last year at an Irving, Texas, high school after his homemade clock was mistaken for a bomb, has accused the school district in a lawsuit of violating his son's civil rights.
The Dallas Morning News reports that Mohamed Elhassan contends in the suit that the Irving Independent School District, as well as the city of Irving, showed a "blatant disregard" for Ahmed's civil rights in September 2015 when he was arrested at MacArthur High School.
The student showed a homemade clock in a pencil case to a teacher, and she confiscated it because she said it looked like a bomb.
The school district issued a statement asserting that it did not violate the student's rights.
"Irving ISD continues to deny violating the student's rights and will respond to claims in accordance with court rules," the statement said. "Because this matter is now in litigation, Irving ISD officials will have no further comment at this time."
Ahmed was arrested on Sept. 14. Police and MacArthur Principal Daniel Cummings interrogated Mohamed about the clock for more than an hour and prohibited him from having his parents present. Irving police eventually took the boy from the school in handcuffs and charged him with possession of a hoax bomb.
Ahmed maintained to all who were questioning him that his device was a clock. After the boy's predicament became a national story and he gained widespread support—including from President Obama—officials dropped criminal charges.
Ahmed did serve three days' suspension because of the incident. After receiving so much publicity because of the incident, the Mohameds said they were being threatened with violence and decided to move to Qatar.
