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Overview
On September 14th, 2015, a 14 year-old boy named Ahmed Mohamed was arrested in Irving, Texas, after bringing a home-made clock to school. Police and school administrators described the device as a “hoax bomb,” but later did not charge the student with anything after determining that the device was not intended to be anything other than a clock.[1]
Background
“My hobby is to invent stuff,” said Ahmed Mohamed to the Dallas Morning News. The boy was a member of the robotics club in middle school, and he hoped to impress his new high school teachers with his knowledge of circuitry and electronics.
Instead, the teacher suggested that he not “show any other teachers,” but when the clock beeped during an English class, he showed his teacher the invention after class. The teacher kept the clock, and Mohamed was pulled from his sixth period class by a police officer and his principal. He was later interrogated by several more officers and sent to a juvenile detention center, where he was finally allowed to contact his parents.[2]
Notable Developments
The following day, on September 15th, 2015, the Irving Independent School District suspended Mohamed for three days for bringing the clock to school, and released the following letter to the parents of students in the district, claiming that although they investigated a Mohamed’s device as a threat they did not find it to be threatening, but that this was a good time for parents to discuss what types of objects were allowed and not allowed in school.[3]
Online Reactions
As soon as this story was published by the Dallas Morning News, it began to accrue heavy online reaction across all social media sites. An initial post of the photograph of Mohamed being arrested to the subreddit /r/pics received 5,899 points (96% upvoted),[4] while an additional post of a video to the subreddit /r/videos of Ahmed’s father running for President in his native country of Sudan received 6,146 points (95% upvoted).[5]
#IStandWithAhmed
Soon after the first news of Mohamed’s arrest began to go viral, Mohamed’s two older sisters, Eyman, 18, and Ayisha, 17, created a Twitter account for Mohamed using the hashtag people were using to talk about his story, @IStandWithAhmed. Within 24 hours of the account’s creation, he had 31,400 followers.
The #IStandWithAhmed hashtag began to trend worldwide in the 24 hours after Mohamed’s arrest. Twitter released this chart demonstrating the hashtag’s growth. According to analytics group Topsy, the hashtag had been used almost 500,000 times in less than 24 hours, and in the afternoon of September 16th, 2015, was being used at a rate of about 100,000 times per hour.
Many political figures and celebrities tweeted about Mohamed. President Barack Obama offered him a trip to the White House in a tweet that received over 190,000 retweets in less than three hours. Hillary Clinton offered her support, and the astronaut Chris Hadfield offered Mohamed the chance to visit the science show Generator. Other celebrities, especially those of color, like comedian Aziz Ansari, blogger Anil Dash, and musician Questlove, tweeted in support. Many others took selfies of themselves holding up clocks in support.
Media Coverage
Search Interest
Not yet available.
External References
[1]New York Times – Texas Student Is Under Police Investigation for Building a Clock
[2]The Dallas Morning News – Family adjusting to Ahmed Mohamed’s sudden fame as police announce no charges for clock deemed ‘hoax bomb’
[3]Vox – Here’s how a Texas school explained arresting a 14-year-old Muslim boy for making a clock
[4]/r/pics – 14 year old Muslim student reaction to being arrested for bringing a clock into school
[5]/r/videos – Father of the 14-year-old arrested for bringing a clock to school ran for president of Sudan, advocating for women’s rights, freedom of the press and fighting terrorism.