Seven other kids not named Mohamed who brought homemade clocks to school

Paul Hogarth

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday September 16, 2015 · 11:21 AM PDT

2015/09/16 · 11:21

Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school

Ahmed Mohammed gets handcuffed after bringing a homemade clock to school.

Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school

A 14-year-old brought a homemade clock to school, hoping to impress his teacher.

But Ahmed Mohamed was arrested and handcuffed because school authorities suspected it was a bomb.

Should the school be vigilant about possible bombs? Yes.

Did they overreact in this situation? HELL YES.

And as others have speculated, what would have happened if the kid was not named Mohamed?

Our friends at Gawker have culled seven examples of kids not named Mohamed who brought homemade clocks to school—most of them science fair experiments—and did not get arrested.

(1) Peter Mattis of [Wilmington, North Carolina] wanted to make a clock more complex than a sundial, so he made his own liquid clock. The clock drips green fluid into a container to mark the hour.

Green fluid? Shouldn’t the school have been suspicious about that? What if he’s a terrorist?

(2 & 3) Haley Zinke and Tasha Williams [of Turtle Lake, North Dakota] researched whether or not water clocks kept accurate time. They built their own clock for the project and demonstration.

(4) During the Holloway Elementary School science fair last week, kids crowded around Logan’s exhibit as he explained how he used veggie power to keep track of time. “I tried to get an alarm clock to come on with no batteries,” Logan explained, pointing to copper wires and chunks of potato and lemons. Citric acid in the lemon kept the clock working for hours, but the potato “spuddered” out rather quickly.

(5 & 6) Indy Brumbraugh and Cesar Limas [of Dade City, Florida] also worked together on their “Clock-o-matic,” an alarm clock that squirts water on those not-so-early risers.

(7) “I didn’t know anything about building,” said senior Tori Clark [of Ellis, Kansas], the only girl in the class of 14. “I built a clock in (Carroll’s) industrial tech class last year, and he’s a good teacher so I decided to try this.”

The common thread in all these examples (which Gawker sourced back to news articles in each) is that the children are not named Mohamed, and the vast majority are presumably white.

But what happens when a white kid actually brings a bomb to school? Surely, authorities would take action.

A high school student’s science project was meant to demonstrate how heat is involved in transferring energy. But because the project was an inert bomb, the student and his teacher are taking some heat of their own. [ … ]
The student, whose name officials refused to release, remains in school and will not be disciplined by the school, because he had his teacher’s approval for the project.

Outrageous.

Comments are closed on this story.