A Muslim teen bought a strange ticking device to his high school that set off alarms and fear. The student was detained for having what resembled a bomb. Officers said the clock and wires inside his Vaultz pencil case looked like a hoax bomb to them. When questioned about the device was, the student, Ahmed Mohamed, wouldn’t answer. Now terror-tied Islamic groups like Hamas-CAIR, their media lapdogs and even President Obama are waging jihad against the school.
This whole thing smells like a set-up. With ISIS in America, and young moderate Muslims are fleeing to Syria to join the terror group, the Irving school’s response was rational and reasonable. I run news stories on a weekly basis of American Muslim teens arrested for trying to join ISIS. Just this week, a Philly Muslim teen was arrested for a plot to assassinate the Pope on his US visit.
Every day we are warned of new terror threats, increased threat levels. But trying to protect schoolchildren is “islamophobic.” And President Obama agrees, of course. Yes, he has weighed in.
WFAA: According to Irving police, Ahmed’s case contained a digital clock that the student had taken apart and rearranged. Police said the student had the briefcase in his English class, where he plugged it into an electrical outlet and it started to make noise.
Ahmed told WFAA that his English teacher confiscated his case. A few hours later, the student said the principal and school resource officer pulled him out of class and questioned the high school freshman.
Officers said Ahmed was being “passive aggressive” in his answers to their questions, and didn’t have a “reasonable answer” as to what he was doing with the case.
Investigators said the student told them that it was just a clock that he was messing around with.
“We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only say it was a clock. He didn’t offer any explanation as to what it was for, why he created this device, why he brought it to school,” said James McLellan, Irving Police.
Like I said. It smells like a set-up. Why wasn’t Ahmed forthcoming when questioned?
The teachers were just trying to protect the school and the school children. Islamic supremacists will have have their heads.
Mohamed said problems arose when the clock rang in his back pack in class with a second teacher later in the day. He said he showed that teacher the device after other students had left the room.
“She said, ‘Well it looks like a bomb. Don’t show it to anyone else,’” he said. “And she decides to take it from me.”
The principal referred questions to the district, which released this statement to WFAA:
We always ask our students and staff to immediately report if they observe any suspicious items and/or suspicious behavior. If something is out of the ordinary, the information should be reported immediately to a school administrator and/or the police so it can be addressed right away. We will always take necessary precautions to protect our students and keep our school community as safe as possible.”
Of course, but terror-tied groups like CAIR means to stop any reporting of suspicion of jihad. They mean to punish the vigilant.
Ahmed, his father, and attorneys with CAIR planned to meet with the principal and the police chief on Wednesday afternoon.
“If the family is willing to give us written permission, we would be happy to share with the public the other side of the story so they can understand the actions we took,” Irving Independent School District spokeswoman Lesley Weaver said.
The president, of course, had to insert himself. Is it any wonder 30% of the country thinks he’s a Muslim? He’s invited the kid to the White House.
A 14-year-old North Texas student and his family blame fear of Islam for his arrest on charges of making a “hoax bomb.” NBC News, September 15, 2015:
Ahmed Mohamed, a freshman at Irving MacArthur High School, said he took an electronic clock he built over the weekend to school Monday morning to show his first period engineering teacher his skill with making things.
“I wanted to start clean with the teacher by showing him my inventions and stuff,” he said.
Mohamed said problems arose when the clock rang in his back pack in class with a second teacher later in the day. He said he showed that teacher the device after other students had left the room.
“She said, ‘Well it looks like a bomb. Don’t show it to anyone else,’” he said. “And she decides to take it from me.”
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Mohamed said police handcuffed him and took him to Irving police headquarters for interrogation, fingerprints and mug shots. He said his family surname repeatedly came up in police questioning.
“I tried making a phone call to my father. They said, ‘You’re in the middle of an interrogation. You can’t have a phone call,'” he said. “I really don’t think it’s fair, because I brought something to school that wasn’t a threat to anyone. I didn’t do anything wrong. I just showed my teachers something and I end up being arrested later that day.”
Irving Student Says He’s Falsely Accused of Hoax Bomb
A 14-year-old Irving High School student is accused of making a hoax bomb, but he says it was a clock he brought to school to show an engineering teacher. Ahmed Mohamed says there was never a threat, and he and his father believe it’s a case of discrimination because of their religion. (Published Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015)
His father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, said he drove his son to school Monday morning and encouraged him to demonstrate his gift for technology.
“We are in the melting pot,” the father said. “We are in the greatest country. We need this trouble not to hinder us, as Muslims, as Christians, as Jews, or whatever you are.”
Irving police released a report Tuesday that lists three MacArthur High teachers as complainants against the teen on the charge of “hoax bomb.” Irving Police Officer James McLellan said school officials simply thought the device was suspicious and acted out of caution.
“Clearly, there were disassembled clock parts in there, but he offered no more explanation than that,” McLellan said. “A lot of these details that the family and he have provided to you were not shared with us yesterday. He was very much less than forthcoming.”
McLellan said the police investigation is not completed.
Irving Independent School District spokeswoman Lesley Weaver said Tuesday their main focus was student safety.
“We are never going to take any chances for any of their safety,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what child would have brought a suspicious looking item. We still would have taken the same actions.”
Weaver said it’s frustrating to not be able to provide the school’s perspective.
“If the family is willing to give us written permission, we would be happy to share with the public the other side of the story so they can understand the actions we took,” she said.
Weaver also issued the following statement on behalf of the Irving ISD Tuesday:
“Around 3 p.m. yesterday, a MacArthur High School student was arrested on campus by the Irving Police Department. School officials have been cooperating fully with the police investigation, and while privacy laws prevent us from sharing specific details about student discipline, we can assure everyone that school administrators are handling the situation in accordance with the Irving ISD Student Code of Conduct and applicable laws.
We always ask our students and staff to immediately report if they observe any suspicious items and/or suspicious behavior. If something is out of the ordinary, the information should be reported immediately to a school administrator and/or the police so it can be addressed right away. We will always take necessary precautions to protect our students and keep our school community as safe as possible.”
The teen and his father want the case closed and the “clock” device returned to them.
“I don’t want to see anybody go through what I went through,” Ahmed Mohamed said.
NBC 5’s Ellen Bryan contributed to this report.