What is happening in America’s schools when a 14-year-old boy’s homemade clock is mistaken for a bomb that causes a Texas school to have the boy arrested?
Ahmed Mohamed wanted to impress his teachers at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas by building a digital clock. He showed it to his science teacher who thought it was great work but the teacher suggested that he not show other teachers.
The young man carried the clock with him when the alarm he programed sounded and caught the attention of his English teacher, she was concerned with the appearance of the device and alerted school authorities and called the police.
Soon Ahmed found himself in cuffs and being interrogated by detectives accusing him of building a bomb. Ahmed was not allowed to call his parents and now pictures of him in cuffs wearing a NASA t-shirt are being tweeted across the country. The president even wants to invite him to the White House.
While many are crying Islamaphobia and racism for this tragic ordeal, there is a bigger problem being exposed here. There may be some rush to judgment because the young man’s last name is Mohamed but consider that school are more routinely calling the police on matters they could handle internally.
When the science teacher gave his warning to Ahmed, he could have taken the boy and his device to the principal and explain that it was indeed a clock and no concern was needed. The teacher was silent.
The administration could have easily noticed the homemade gadget was not dangerous and warned the boy not bring such things without an invitation.
However, schools like parents are afraid to do their jobs. We have chosen to avoid disciple and teaching and just call the cops because we no longer choose to do the hard work.
We have stopped raising children and started being wardens or worse not so glorified babysitters. Schools are so afraid of what will happen if they take action because of bad parents attacking them for daring to get after little Johnny for misbehaving that it is just easier to let the police be the disciplinarian.
Schools should have stood up to worthless parents and judges should have thrown out cases against schools. But this is where we are when a school can’t handle a concerning looking homemade clock and everyone gets to cry “Islamaphobia”.
