On September 14,2015, Ahmed Mohamed was excited to get to school to show his teacher the digital clock he had made from a pencil case. Instead of being impressed by the 14-year old’s project she was threatened. His teacher had thought he made a fake bomb and Ahmed was arrested and suspended from MacArthur High School until Thursday. But he is thinking about transferring to another high school.
“I built a clock to impress my teacher but when I showed it to her, she thought it was a threat to her,” Ahmed told reporters Wednesday. “It was really sad that she took the wrong impression of it.”
By Wednesday September 16, his story has gone viral and our enraged social media users have reacted. Hes been invited to the white house, and he’s also being supported by major politicians like Hillary Clinton and Mark Zuckerberg. It’s all over Twitter and Facebook timelines, with the hashtags #IStandWithAhmed and #engineersforahmed gaining major popularity. Even President Obama tweeted out to Ahmed.
Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.
— President Obama (@POTUS44) September 16, 2015
Assumptions and fear don't keep us safe—they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep building. https://t.co/ywrlHUw3g1
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 16, 2015
Hey @istandwithAhmed, if you ever want to get into the world of music, let me know. #theworldisyours #IStandWithAhmed
— NE-YO (@NeYoCompound) September 17, 2015
Ahmed, I heard you're trying to switch school districts. Did you know Fairfax is home to America's top ranked STEM school? #IStandWithAhmed
— Ryan McElveen (@RyanLMcElveen) September 16, 2015
The above tweets from public leaders are only a sample of thousands of tweets discussing the issue. Seeing all this positivity and all the support Ahmed is getting is wonderful. Its awful that it takes situations like this to see the nation uniting.One core value that goes into play in this story is truth. Ahmed was not making a fake bomb or had intentions to put his classmates and teachers in danger. He really just wanted to show off his cool clock that he made. Another core value is justice he actually didn’t do anything and he was arrested in front of everyone and he didn’t have a probable cause.