Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was handcuffed and taken away from his school in Irving, Texas, earlier this week after school officials grew suspicious of a digital clock he had made in a pencil case over the weekend.
Teachers and police weren't satisfied with Mohamed's explanation that his invention was simply a clock. After they questioned him about the possibility that he was trying to perpetrate a bomb hoax, Mohamed was suspended for three days, the student's family says.
President Obama isn't the only person to voice support of Mohamed, who is a freshman at MacArthur High School. The hashtag #IStandWithAhmed is drawing thousands of messages on Instagram and on Twitter.
The more I look at this, the stupider it gets.
So if I understand things correctly, the kid (the 14-year-old kid) cracked open an alarm clock and put it in a pencil case 20 minutes before bedtime on Sunday night because he had a homework assignment in Engineering class the next day. he showed the pencil-cased alarm clock to his Engineering teacher.
Ahmed, having a vague understanding that muslim kids with technical skillz spook your garden-variety Texan, put it in his bag where the alarm went off in English class.
...so is the Engineering teacher ALSO muslim? 'cuz it seems to me that an English teacher that wasn't an abject douche would ask the guy who assigned the homework. And then a principal who also wasn't an abject douche might maybe check in with said-same Engineering teacher. And that not only would a police department with the vaguest sense that there might be a bomb SHOW UP WITH THE BOMB SQUAD but they might, you know, talk to the guy who assigned the homework to say "Does this look like a clock to you? Because we're all, you know, Texan and just can't tell. Also, mooninites are terrorists."
(To be fair, that was Philly but sweet holy jesus)