About shauntanner
Shaun Tanner has been a meteorologist at Weather Underground since 2004.
By: Shaun Tanner , 6:40 PM GMT on September 16, 2015
By now, many of you have heard or read about the arrest of Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old high school student from Irving, Texas. Ahmed was arrested because school officials called the police after he showed one of his teachers his homemade clock. Mistaken for a bomb, Ahmed was taken into custody, interrogated, shamed, suspended (still on suspension today, Wednesday), and reprimanded. All of this after it has been found that the "device" he brought to school was indeed, a homemade clock.
Many of you may also be wondering why I am even writing a blog about something that is so clearly not weather-related. Well, we are a science-first website so I wanted to give you my take on this event from the mindset of a science-loving teenager. My direct intent is not to call out school officials and police (the greater public and media are doing a great job of that already). Rather, I want to focus on what may go on in Ahmed's science-loving mind after this incident has cleared the public's focus.
From all accounts so far (I've read many reports on the incident), Ahmed loved to disassemble and reassemble stuff. This was especially true for electronics. His dream is to become an inventor. In fact, this was one of the reasons he brought his homemade clock to school that day. He wanted advice. In the CNN.com story above, his dad says, "my son only brought it to school to ask for help from his teachers, to show that he can do this amazing thing and maybe get appreciation and to show him (he can become) something bigger in the world -- an inventor."
After the alarm on the clock accidentally went off in class, one of his teachers reported him and the police were called. Never did Ahmed (from any reports I can find) say the word "bomb" or "explosive". In fact, the school administrators and the police are the one people in any article stating those words. They escalated this, not Ahmed.
After his arrest, the Dallas Morning News did this report with Ahmed.
Here is a picture taken of Ahmed at the time of his arrest.
Ahmed's sister told me to post this. Yes this situation is real for those questioning. pic.twitter.com/Oxd0JxUS6O
— Prajwol/Ru (@OfficalPrajwol) September 16, 2015
Irving PD: No charges to be filed against Ahmed Mohamed for bringing a homemade clock to school case is now considered closed.#Justice4Ahmed
— Prajwol/Ru (@OfficalPrajwol) September 16, 2015
The views of the author are his/her own and do not necessarily represent the position of The Weather Company or its parent, IBM.