Ahmed Mohamed posted a photograph on Twitter and thanked people for their support.
Ahmed Mohamed posted a photograph on Twitter and thanked people for their support.
Ahmed Mohamed posted a photograph on Twitter and thanked people for their support.
Ahmed Mohamed posted a photograph on Twitter and thanked people for their support.
Ahmed Mohamed posted a photograph on Twitter and thanked people for their support.

Texas school mistakes student's homemade clock for a bomb

Sept. 16, 2015
14-year-old boy with Islamic-sounding name was arrested, but after words of support from President Obama and thousands of others, police now say the student will not be charged.

When Ahmed Mohamed brought a homemade clock Monday to MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, the school called police fearing it was a bomb.

The Dallas Morning News reports that instead of attending his student council meeting that day, the 14-year-old boy was taken in handcuffs to juvenile detention.

Police acknowledge that Ahmed told everyone who would listen that his device was a clock, but it wasn't until the boy's predicament became a national story that Irving officials backed off their threats to charge him with a crime.

Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd announced Wednesday that no charges will be filed against Ahmed, and the case is considered closed.

As the school and police were being criticized for overreacting and succumbing to racial and ethnic stereotypes, Boyd also contended the police response to the incident "would have been the same regardless" of the student's skin color or ethnicity.

Ahmed's story went viral on social media, and a Twitter account his sisters created for him, @istandwithahmed, had gained more than 20,000 followers as of Wednesday morning.

President Obama asked Ahmed to bring his homemade clock to the White House.

Video from The Dallas Morning News:

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